


Victims

by crazywalls



Series: Thriller Verse [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, Angst, Art, Cop!Dean, Destiel - Freeform, Domestic Fluff, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Fluff, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Murder, The Ghostfacers, Thriller AU, Torture, artist!Cas, everyone is human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-21 15:12:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3697043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazywalls/pseuds/crazywalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean is working another serial murder with a monstrous killer. Things get even worse when his boyfriend Cas gets involved in the case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frozen Bodies

**Author's Note:**

> Since this is the second part of my Supernatural Thriller AU series it makes sense to read part one first but it's not absolutely necessary to understand this part.  
> Enjoy reading it, comments and constructive criticism are very appreciated :)

Even before Dean opened the door to Cas’s flat – well, actually it was their flat now – he heard music blast out of the apartment. It was some kind of rock or alternative or so that Dean didn’t know. The detective stepped into the hallway and shrugged out of his leather jacket, causing a bit of snow to fall to the floor. He was sure Cas hadn’t heard him yet as he entered the living room. Indeed Castiel didn’t even notice him until Dean turned down the music a bit and walked over to him to look over his shoulder.

“Hey.” A smile spread across the smaller man’s face as he turned around.

“Why am I not surprised that you’re still up?” Dean looked at him, noticing his tousled hair, dirty shirt and the inevitable splashes of colour all over his hands and arms, a few even smeared across his face.

“Well, it’s only…” Cas took a look at the clock hanging on the wall, “…half past one in the morning.”

Dean grinned at him before eyeing the painting Cas was currently working on. “I need a shower. Guess you’re not done yet, huh?”

“No, but I won’t work that long anymore.”

“’kay.” The detective headed for the bathroom and left the door ajar before undressing and stepping into the shower to wash off the day’s dirt and worries. When he was with Cas he didn’t want to think about work.

Seven months had passed since their first date in the museum and about five weeks ago Cas and Dean had decided to move in together. Of course that meant that Dean had moved into Cas’s flat since it was bigger and “the lighting conditions were much better” which was “incredibly important” for Cas’s work. Not that Dean would even think about arguing about that. He’d only used his flat for showering and sleeping anyway whereas pretty much Castiel’s whole life took place in these four walls so the decision was anything but hard to make.

The warm water made Dean sleepy and grateful for finally being at home. It had been a rough week. Not only had the case they had just closed been a particularly gruesome one but huddling over corpses that were frozen solid because of the temperatures never failed to damage everybody’s mood.

A few minutes later he was towelling himself and putting on boxers and a T-shirt before joining Cas again who was still listening to music while he cleaned his brushes. 

“Who’s that?” He nodded vaguely to the speakers.

“Fall Out Boy.” When he noticed Dean’s questioning look Cas smirked. “They’re pretty good. – Did you have to do much at work today?” his boyfriend – Dean still wasn’t used to calling Cas this – suddenly changed the subject.

“Nah, it was mostly paperwork but the guys wanted to have a drink and I went with them. Wanted to call you but the reception in that bar was terrible.”

“It’s fine.” Cas turned to face him and gave a smile. “I’m glad you could take the whole weekend off. Especially with that weather…”

Although it was February and everyone agreed that spring couldn’t come soon enough the weather forecast predicted a heavy snow storm for the next few days and Dean planned on staying inside with Cas the whole time.

He yawned and blinked sleepily at Cas. “Me too. Really need some time off. I’m going to bed, you coming?”

“I’ll be right there, just need to wash my hands.”

“Don’t forget your face, you got purple on your nose.” Dean grinned and pecked Cas on the cheek before walking into their bedroom and climbing into the bed.

Cas joined him under the covers after a couple of minutes and snuggled up against Dean. “So, any plans for the weekend, detective?” Dean could hear the smile in his voice.

“Well, staying in bed till noon, cooking for you – no, you can’t help, not after you nearly burned down the kitchen again last week – and then we could watch baseball if you want?”

“I guess that means I clean up my mess in the living room while you’re cooking so that we can actually see the TV? And I didn’t ‘nearly burn down the kitchen’, it was only a bit of smoke…”

“Yes you did. And tidying up would definitely make sense.” Dean grinned even though he knew Cas couldn’t see him in the dark. If he were home more often he’d maybe be annoyed by Castiel’s huge chaos sooner or later but he didn’t really mind. As long as the brushes, tubes of paint, canvasses and pencils stayed in the living room and didn’t magically appear in the kitchen drawer or their wardrobe. Cas really had a talent for leaving his utensils in the weirdest places.

“Alright, fine. But you know, there’s this documentary on Sunday about Dutch genre paintings. We could watch that as well. Or the one about Artemisia Gentileschi.”

“I have absolutely no idea what or who that is but sure, why not.”

“The artists depicted everyday scenes, often with a hidden metaphorical or allegorical meaning. And Artemisia was one of few female baroque painters, probably the most important one. Her depiction of bible scenes for example is very different to the ones of her male colleagues, that’s what makes her so interesting.”

“I still don’t get most of the stuff you say when you talk nerdy to me,” Dean mumbled with a smile on his lips as he buried his face in the crook of Cas’s neck. “But I say we’ll watch the one about that female painter.” 

Cas was the reason Dean’s knowledge about art had improved significantly. Not that he’d known much about it before. Cas could talk about artists, paintings, sculptures and art in general for hours and regularly made Dean watch documentaries with him. He would never admit it to anyone but Castiel but secretly Dean thought most of them were actually pretty interesting.

“Okay, great. I’ll let you sleep now. Good night,” Cas whispered as he heard Dean’s breath getting steadier. 

“Night…” The two men fell asleep to the sounds of the beginning storm outside.

***

Dean was woken up by the smell of freshly brewed coffee and – unsurprisingly – music. A sure sign that Cas had already started working. He rolled to his other side to see what time it was. 11.53 a.m. This had to be the first time in months he’d slept in.

“Thought we weren’t gonna work this weekend,” he murmured in Cas’s ear while he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and pressed his body against his back. He’d dressed and gotten himself a cup of coffee before sneaking into the living room.

“Sorry, I just didn’t want to wake you and didn’t have anything else to do.” Cas turned his head and smiled up at Dean.

“No interesting thriller or anything?” Dean smirked. One could say Cas was crazy about thrillers. The creepier the better.

“No, not at the moment. What about breakfast? Or maybe lunch…” he added with a look at the clock and grinned. Then he put the pencil he had been sketching with away and turned around to face Dean.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t usually still asleep at this time.” Dean looked at Cas with amusement. “So what’s for breakfast?”

“Wait, you aren’t letting me cook dinner but I’m good enough to make you breakfast?” Castiel pretended to be huffy and walked over to the kitchen door.

“Can’t do that much wrong with breakfast. And you’re a terrible actor,” the Winchester grinned, followed Cas into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “What about eggs?”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll start a fire again?” Cas looked at Dean with a smirk on his face and a raised brow.

“So you admit there was a fire?”

Sighing theatrically, Cas grabbed the egg box, switched on the stove and set a frying pan with oil in it on the cooktop. “You can be a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“Oh, and I always thought you like that part of our relationship,” Dean remarked with a wolfish grin as he stepped closer and pushed Cas against the counter.

“That wasn’t what I…” He was cut off by Dean’s lips pressing on his. Automatically, his arms wrapped around Dean’s shoulders and he pulled him closer.

The Winchester pulled back after a moment. “You should be careful. I really don’t want anything to catch fire again,” he winked as the oil started sizzling.

Cas turned around and started making breakfast while Dean went back to the living room.

***

The whole weekend ran smoothly. The two men watched baseball, cooked together, slept in and talked a lot about everything and anything, including their work.

It was Sunday evening when they sat on the sofa together, cuddling and watching the documentary Cas had wanted to see when Dean got a call. He got up to check his cell phone and took the call. His expression got serious as he listened to the caller.

“Yes? … Where? … Oh that’s just fantastic. … Alright, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” With that he hung up and turned to Cas.

“I have to leave…” When he saw that his boyfriend was trying to hide his disappointment he went back to the sofa and kneeled down in front of it so the two of them were on eye level.

“I’m sorry, Cas, but someone has been murdered and they need me at the crime scene.”

“I understand. You can’t tell me anything about it, right?” Castiel’s usual curiosity immediately was back again.

“Don’t know anything yet.” Dean leaned closer and kissed Cas briefly before heading to the bedroom, changing into jeans and a jacket and grabbing his keys.

Cas was waiting at the door for him. “Drive carefully, it’s still storming and really slippery.”

“Will do.” He was about to walk out the door when Cas held him back and pulled him down for another kiss. 

“See you tomorrow.” Dean left and hurried down the stairs to his car.

***

“At least it’s not as messy as the last one…” Dean heard his partner Benny Lafitte mumble behind him as he slipped over the icy beaten track towards the crime scene. The two detectives had arrived nearly at the same time and now joined the officer who had been unlucky enough to be the first at the scene and had to wait in the snow storm and freezing temperatures. At least he’d been waiting in his car until he had seen them.

“Are the forensic scientists and the ME on their way?” Benny and Dean carefully walked over the frozen, apparently barely used parking lot on the outskirts that bordered on a small forest, trying not to contaminate the crime scene while getting a look at the victim.

“Yeah. And Sergeant Singer should be here any minute, too,” the officer confirmed.

The partners leaned down to eye the corpse. White male, brown hair, brown eyes, beard, probably somewhere in his thirties. No visible injuries or blood but most of his body was covered by a layer of snow. Dean noticed tire tracks near the victim.

“Who found him?”

“Teenage couple who parked their car here to make out. Nearly ran over him, those are their tracks. They’re waiting in their car over there, totally shaken.”

Without the forensic guys and Tessa, the coroner, there wasn’t much they could do except for interviewing the teenagers. It proved to be quite difficult because the kids refused to leave their car and the warmth – Dean was able to relate. Benny questioned the girl in her boyfriend’s car while Dean took the guy to the Impala and interviewed him there to get separate statements but they seemed pretty useless. They hadn’t seen anything or anyone and immediately called the police.

Bobby arrived a few minutes after the first forensic van had parked in the parking lot. His expression was grumpy and tired and Dean was startled by the way his superior and friend looked: old and worn out.

“Why does every frickin’ body we get show up in the middle of the night?” he grumbled and squatted down next to the corpse. “And where the hell is the ME?”

“No need to hurry, he’s already dead and won’t go anywhere,” Tessa’s voice announced behind the sergeant, startling him.

“Well, it’s cold as hell so I guess none of us appreciate having to wait…” Bobby muttered quietly as he stepped back to let the coroner do her job.

After what felt like an eternity Tessa was finally done and gave the OK to move the body to the morgue. The forensic people unfortunately had to stay in the cold, dark night to preserve traces and document the crime scene but everyone else left.

The policemen immediately drove to the precinct to start the investigation. Tessa had sent them a photo of the victim. Identifying him now was the most important part. Surprisingly that wasn’t as hard as expected. It took them only 20 minutes to find a match in the missing persons cases.

“Aaron Bass, went missing nine days ago. He was supposed to meet some friends at seven p.m. last Friday but never arrived at the bar,” Benny told Bobby. “He was last seen at work around half past five the same day. We’ll look into that period of time next and try to find out where he might have gone missing and what happened to him in the last nine days.”

“Good work. Now you two get back home to get some sleep, calling his family and friends now doesn’t make much sense. I expect you to be here again at eight a.m. sharp.”

“Alright. Night, Bobby.” Dean and Benny grabbed their jackets and left the station.

***

It was quarter to three in the morning when Dean sneaked into his flat. He was freezing – he loved his car but it was pretty cold in there at this time of the year – and instantly tiptoed into the bedroom, surprised that Cas was already in bed.

He quietly changed into a T-shirt and boxers.

“I didn’t think you’d be back before tonight,” Cas mumbled sleepily.

“Sorry, didn’t want to wake you,” Dean apologised and crawled under the covers, still feeling cold. “Bobby sent us home to get a little sleep before interrogating the victim’s family and friends.”

“I see. So you know who it is?”

“Yup. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, okay?”

“Fine.” Cas moved closer and wrapped his arm around Dean, trying to warm his boyfriend. “Sleep well,” he whispered into Dean’s ear as he spooned him and slowly fell asleep again.


	2. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tessa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the title is a reference to Rembrandt's "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" and I know it sounds a bit weird.

“The autopsy starts at one p.m.,” Bobby informed his detectives as they settled in their office. “I want you to stay here, Garth, while Benny and Dean watch the autopsy.”

Garth looked a little relieved. It wasn’t that he absolutely hated seeing the ME cutting open bodies but he definitely preferred staying at the precinct doing research and following up leads.

“Benny, you’re leading this case. I want you to keep me posted.” With these words Bobby left the room.

Garth had already gotten the missing person’s file and read it but other than providing them with Bass’s family’s contact information it wasn’t exactly helpful.

“Alright, who’s gonna inform his parents and question them again?” Benny asked. This probably was the worst part of their job. Understandably no one liked that task.

After a moment of silence Garth sighed and volunteered. “I’ll talk to the family. Maybe they remember something new that could help us.”

“Thanks. Hey, take Officer Harvelle with you, would ya? She wants to become a detective. Better gets used to the nasty parts already,” Benny stated.

“Will do.” Garth grabbed his jacket, a note pad and pen and headed out the door, looking for Jo.

Dean looked at his partner. “You really think that’s a good idea?”

“Kid’s gotta know that this job ain’t a piece of cake. Let’s see if she can handle it. Anyway, I’m gonna go to Bass’s flat and take someone from forensics with me, maybe we can come up with something. You’ll question the friends he was supposed to meet and his co-workers. We’ll meet at the morgue later.”

Dean nodded and left the precinct, stepping into the freezing air. At least it didn’t snow for the moment.

***

He arrived at the morgue a few minutes early and walked into the dissecting room where Tessa and her assistant were preparing the autopsy. Interviewing Bass’s co-workers hadn’t revealed anything new and he hadn’t had time to talk to his friends yet.

“You really got yourself an interesting one this time,” Tessa interrupted Dean’s thoughts when her assistant wheeled in the corpse which was covered with a white sheet. “Already saw quite a lot when we were finally able to get the frozen clothes off of this guy.”

“What’s so special about him?”

“The things that happened to him before he died. Are you the only one watching?”

“Benny’s supposed to come, too. Guess he’ll be here any minute.”

“Alright.” Tessa uncovered the shape and put the sheet aside. The corpse had already been washed.

Dean stared at the body. Usually he didn’t have any problems with corpses but this one really was different. It left an unsettling feeling deep inside of him.

He could only glare at the pale flesh that was cut and bruised pretty much everywhere as the coroner removed the bags from the dead man’s hands and examined the skin under the victim’s nails, looking for fibres, skin cells or anything else that could give them a clue as to where he had been in the past couple of days.

The door behind Dean opened and Benny stepped inside just as the ME took a few swabs and handed them over to her assistant.

“Well, that’s just a lovely sight…” Benny mumbled and stopped next to Dean, staring at the corpse as well.

“I suggest you guys get yourselves some gloves and scrubs before we begin. That way you can take a closer look.”

Dean smirked when Benny grimaced at him. None of them where eager to come close to the body let alone touch it but they did as they were told.

“He didn’t have a pleasant time leading up to his death, did he? Or is that post-mortem?” Benny gestured at the cuts and bruises.

“They were brought on him before he died. I got a preliminary body temperature at 11.14. As soon as the body was here I took his internal temperature and checked the usual. Rigor mortis had already developed and livor mortis was non-reversible. He definitely didn’t die in that parking lot because there was not enough blood.” She paused and checked her notes.

“Any idea about time of death?”

“I can only tell you that he died at least twelve hours before he was found and – according to the forensic guys – judging by the amount of snow that covered him and the weather conditions last night he lay there for about an hour, maybe a little more. Usually I’d say he’s been dead four days tops but since we don’t know where he died and if he lay outside before he was moved it could’ve been a bit longer.”

“So our time window is about one to three or four days ago?”

“It certainly looks like it.” Tessa scribbled a few things in the autopsy protocol. “Now, let’s move on to the fun part.”

The detectives looked at each other for a moment before focusing on the body again.

“As you can see he was harmed a lot before he was killed but at first sight I’d say this was the cause of death.” The ME pointed at the long cut on the victim’s neck. It was deep enough to show the white of his vertebra.

“Then what’s with the rest? Did someone torture him?” Benny’s voice contained a hint of disbelief. This was one of the worst ravaged bodies both detectives had ever seen.

“Definitely. We already X-rayed him and he has a few broken bones. Someone beat him up real bad, that’s where most of the bruises come from. I’m not sure yet with what he has been cut, it looks like the perp used more than one sharp object because the width of the cuts differs. We found a few tiny splinters and forensics will analyse them.”

“Any idea how he got abducted? I mean he’s not that small that someone could just easily overpower him.”

Tessa moved around the table and carefully lifted Bass’s right shoulder as far as possible, then she indicated the detectives to come closer. “See that?” She pointed at two faint, red marks on the man’s skin.

“A Taser?” Benny leaned down to get a better look.

“Yes. Those marks are a few days old so I suppose the kidnapper tasered him to be able to abduct him without resistance.”

“You mentioned most of the bruises were from him being beaten. Do you know what was used? And what about the other ones?” Dean asked.

“I can only tell you that the bruises and fractures strongly indicate that this is a case of blunt force trauma. Now take a look at those marks and tell me what you think about them.” The coroner pointed out a few horizontal bruises on the victim’s neck.

“He was choked with a cord or something like that.”

“Exactly.” Tessa grabbed one of Bass’s forearms and lifted it a bit.

“There are similar bruises on his wrists. The pattern indicates that they weren’t bound together or at his sides or on his back as usual, though. It looks like they were bound above his head and he might even have hung on the ropes. If it was hung high enough so that his feet barely touched the ground that could’ve been another kind of torture. He could have slowly suffocated.” She let go of the arm and turned to get a scalpel. “Let’s see if that’s the case.”

With noticeable practice she made a Y-incision from the body’s shoulders to his pubis before getting rib shears.

“At least he doesn’t smell that bad yet…” Benny mumbled quietly.

Opening the ribcage was the most violent part of every autopsy. It was disturbing how easy it was to expose all the vital organs and Dean tried not to wince at the loud cracking sound.

When the thorax was open the ME gradually removed, weighed and examined the individual organs and took more notes. At last she cut open the victim’s lungs and examined them thoroughly.

“He didn’t suffocate. I think there’s no need to examine his brain, I am certain the cause of death was blood loss.”

Dean was glad about that. Examining a victim’s brain usually meant severing a person’s skin from their skull and pulling it down over their face before cutting the skull open and that was actually kind of disgusting.

“I’ll run a tox screen and let you know if I find anything else. Whoever did all of that to him definitely knew what he was doing. It sure as hell wasn't their first time.”

“Thanks, doc.” The two men turned around to take off their scrubs and gloves while the coroner continued to take notes and examined a few parts again.

Before they could leave Tessa’s voice caused the detectives to stop. “One more thing: there’s no sign of sexual assault.”

“Got it.” It wasn’t much but Dean felt relieved that the poor guy didn’t have to suffer even more pain and agony. The partners left the morgue to complete their tasks. Collecting their new information and interviewing Bass’s friends were the most important points now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Except for having read lots of thrillers and researching a bit I know nothing about autopsies so sorry about any mistakes I might have made.


	3. Midnight Walk

A few minutes later they arrived at the precinct and met Garth in their office. The detective was leaning against his desk and talking to Jo.

“Hi there,” he greeted Benny and Dean when he noticed them, looking like his usual happy self again. He had to have some kind of mechanism to shut out all the terrible aspects of their job, including the dozens of horrible things all of them had seen. Sometimes Dean admired him for this ability. “Any news?”

“Hell yes… And not pleasant ones.”

Dean was about to tell Garth what Tessa had found out when Benny addressed Jo. “Y’know, we could use someone else in our team. You wanna help?”

Jo’s eyes widened for a moment. “Um… Sure, that’d be great.”

“Good, you’re in. So, we’re looking for a pretty sick fuck.” He explained everything they’d learned at the autopsy in a few words.

Jo seemed a bit disturbed but she didn’t say a word. She’d have to get used to it if she really wanted to become a detective.

“We’re gonna get him,” Garth said confidently. “So, interviewing Bass’s parents didn’t really give us any new insights but I think that is kind of understandable since they were devastated… They couldn’t think of any reason why someone would want to harm their son, much less murder him. Said he was a bit awkward but didn’t have any enemies.”

“Alright. His flat is a mess and the forensic people are still over there looking for any clues so that leaves his colleagues and friends,” Benny stated.

Dean cut in. “His colleagues didn’t have anything to add either and I didn’t have time to talk to his friends.”

“How many friends do we have on that list?”

“Five close ones,” Dean replied.

“Okay. Everyone talks to some of them. Garth, you’re taking Harvelle with you again.” The two of them seemed to get on well with one another so Benny paired them up again.

***

After a couple of hours they met again to talk through everything they’d found out which wasn’t much. None of the victim’s friends could think of anyone who had been pissed at him. Basically they had nothing until forensics were done with analysing everything they had found.

The search of Bass’s flat had been vain as well. His mobile and wallet were still missing. That and the fact that the door was intact and didn’t show any sign of forced entry were the only hints that he had not been abducted at home. None of his neighbours had seen or heard anything either. All in all they had come to a dead end and it would stay like this for the next few days.

***

On Wednesday evening Dean got home discouraged. The whole team was in a bad mood since nothing new had come up except for Tessa figuring out the splinters in the cuts were from pieces of a broken mirror.

“Who the hell would use a shard of a mirror to torture someone and cut that person’s throat?” Dean mumbled to himself when he walked into the hallway of his and Castiel’s flat. He hung up his jacket, took off his shoes and walked into the living room.

“Cas?” The detective asked confused when he saw his boyfriend kneeling on the floor in front of his desk, murmuring something. The dark haired man winced and nearly hit his head before standing up and turning around.

“Hey.” He produced a little smile as Cas beamed up at him. “How was your…?” He was interrupted by a sneeze. “Ugh, sorry.”

“Bless you. My day was quite good, something interesting happened. What about yours? Did you get anything new?”

“Not really, it was frustra-achoo! Dammit!” Dean snuffeled and blinked a few times as tears came to his eyes.

“Are you alright?” Cas seemed a bit worried.

“I… Shit, what the hell?” 

“Uh, Dean…”

Suddenly Dean saw something rush from the desk to under the sofa from the corner of his eye. “Cas, what was that?” he asked, his voice sounding sniffly.

“That’s Mercutio,” Cas answered, biting his lip.

“Who?”

“See, I found him outside meowing and hungry so I took him with me. He doesn’t have a collar or anything and looks thin. I think he doesn’t have someone to take care of him.”

“Cas, you can’t just take a cat home with you! And you can’t call it ‘Mercutio’! You don’t know if he has an owner and he can definitely not sta- achoo!”

“Dean, are you allergic to cats?” Cas squinted up at his partner.

“How could you tell that?” Dean grumbled. “Please tell me you didn’t let him into our bedroom.”

“Of course I didn’t. He could have illnesses!”

“Oh really?” Dean rolled his eyes and took a few steps back. “I need a drink... I’m sorry, Cas, I wanted to spend the evening with you but – achoo! – but this way it won’t do me any good so I guess I’m gonna go to a bar. When I get back I want him gone.” And he had thought his day couldn’t get any worse.

“But… what if he stays only in the living room? Just for a few days until I figured out what to do with him.”

“No ‘but’. Cat hairs get literally everywhere and I tell you what to do with him: bring him to the animal shelter.” He walked back into the hallway and got dressed again before leaving the flat. Well that evening went just great.

Cas sighed quietly. This case stirred Dean more than any other he had had before. “Sorry, darling, but I’m afraid I have to take you away.” He grabbed his coat and scarf from the hallway, got into his shoes and picked up the cat carefully to put her into a box, making sure she wouldn’t freeze outside. Who could have known Dean was allergic to cats of all animals.

Castiel left the flat and headed south. The nearest animal shelter was only a few of blogs away and he decided to walk through the cold winter night because he liked the silence. Glancing up at the stars now and then he reached the shelter after a couple of minutes. Luckily someone was still there, promised to take care of the cat and even allowed Cas to come by to see him if he wanted to.

Finding it was too late to start vacuuming the flat now Cas decided to take a little walk. After half an hour he reached the park he could see from his apartment and stopped at the small pond, looking over the frozen surface. Everything was lit by a bright half-moon and the scenery looked picturesque, a few street lights the only yellow spots in the white-blue semi-darkness. Cas just stood there for a while, watching the stars, amazed by their beauty, listening to the faint sounds of cars in the distance when he suddenly heard something else. Footsteps. 

He looked around but couldn’t spot anyone although he was sure someone – or something – was watching him. Feeling a shudder crawling over his spine, Cas turned and started walking towards home, paying close attention to his surroundings. After a few moments he heard something again and whirled around. The park still seemed empty. Cas quickened his pace and hurried to the nearest exit.

He wasn’t scared easily but right now he somehow was freaked out. Maybe it was knowing about the horrendous murder Dean was working on, maybe it was being alone in a park in the middle of the night with no one around – except for his pursuer –, he didn’t know. But he knew he had to get out of there, had to get somewhere with people close by.

Castiel’s heart missed a beat as he suddenly slipped on the icy trail and noticed a dark shadow from the corner of his eye in the same moment. He caught himself, his instincts just screaming at him to run but he didn’t get that far. A hand landed heavily on his shoulder and held him back, preventing him from running off.


	4. Another Case

As another hand gripped his left arm and pulled him backwards, Cas whirled around, ready to punch the person in the face but he was stopped by a forearm blocking his blow in the last moment. He aimed for the guy’s stomach with his knee but missed again and the smaller man grabbed both of his wrists before taking a small step back, out of the shadows of the huge tree next to them. Finally, Cas was able to see his face.

“Whoa… Hey, bro.” The man smirked up at him.

“Gabriel? What are you doing here? And why were you following me?” Slowly Castiel’s heartbeat steadied down.

“Aw, y’know, I was in the neighbourhood, saw you and thought I’d come and check on you and your boyfriend. Which I only met for a few minutes in case you forgot about that. Hell, I spent more time talking to that gorgeous brother of his than I did getting to know Dean…”

Cas rolled his eyes. “That is neither my nor Dean’s fault. And by the way I’m pretty sure Sam isn’t into guys. Y’know, not everyone is like us even though you like to think you can have anyone.”

“Why are you so grumpy? Did I scare you?” Gabriel grinned at his little brother.

“In fact you did. And Dean isn’t home at the moment.” Cas freed himself and started walking again. It was getting cold and he really just wanted to go home and get rid of his brother.

“That’s too bad. In that case I think I’ll go get myself a drink somewhere. You in?”

“No thank you,” Cas replied as he reached the park’s exit.

“Well then, it was fun scaring you, I’ll call you eventually.” The older man shrugged with a smirk on his face, turned and headed into the opposite direction.

Cas sighed. Gabriel really could be a pain in the ass and he somehow had the feeling he would’ve wanted to talk to Dean for some other reason than getting to know him. More specifically, to get Dean to give him Sam’s number. The only time Gabe had met the Winchesters had been weeks ago when Cas had been able to persuade him to help them move some of Dean’s furniture into Cas’s flat. Since then, every time Cas and Gabriel talked Gabe mentioned Sam but didn’t seem interested to get to know more about the man in Castiel’s life at all. It wasn’t that Cas really was surprised by that.

Crossing the street, Cas noticed the light in the bedroom and a dark figure pacing behind the curtain. He hadn’t expected Dean to be home already, he probably was getting ready for bed. Castiel unlocked the front door and took two steps at a time. Entering the flat he shrugged off his coat before closing the door. He immediately went into the bathroom to undress and put his clothes into the laundry basket, definitely not wanting to cause Dean any more trouble tonight.

“Cas?” he heard Dean’s voice from the bedroom.

“Hm?”

“Is he gone?” Dean walked over to the bathroom and opened the door to peek at Cas, smiling when he realised there was no cat in sight and his boyfriend was about to take a shower.

“Yes, he is. You could have mentioned you were allergic to cats, you know…” Cas smiled back at him and stepped into the shower.

“Guess that all was just bad luck. And a terrible timing…” Dean sighed, his mind still focused on the case. “I’ll be waiting for you in bed.”

A few minutes later Castiel crept under the covers next to Dean. “Are you alright?” He felt him shrugging as he pulled Dean closer.

“I guess… It’s just that I still have no fucking idea why anyone would do that to another person. For all we know it didn’t have anything to do with the killer trying to get information about anything from Bass. Sometimes this job really makes you doubt that everything out there is human and that some people aren’t actually monsters…”

“I understand. You know, when this case is over we should do something nice. Maybe go on a holiday. Get your mind off things for a while.”

“Sounds like a great plan.” Dean yawned and searched for Cas’s lips to place a soft kiss on them. “Night, Cas.”

“Good night, Dean. Sleep well.” Cas really hoped Dean and his colleagues would get the guy soon.

***

Twelve days after they had been called to the first crime scene bad news were waiting for Dean, Benny and Garth when they returned to the precinct after they had grabbed something to eat for lunch. Bobby was already waiting in their office.

“We got a call from Tessa a few minutes ago. Last night a body was brought to the morgue and when she undressed and examined him this morning she noticed similarities to Bass. She wants to see you ASAP.”

The three detectives looked at each other. That was definitely not the kind of possible break-through they had been hoping for.

It took them only a couple of minutes to drive to the morgue and find the ME in her office.

“Bobby said you wanted to see us,” Benny stated.

Tessa looked up. “Yes. You guys have to take a look at this body. He’s already in the dissecting room, you can go in there, I’ll be right there. Just don’t touch anything.” She gave her attention to the papers in front of her as the men left her office.

“As if any of us would want to touch anything in here,” Garth mumbled when he entered the dissecting room and spotted the corpse on the table. Like always it was covered by a white sheet.

“We didn’t start the autopsy yet,” the coroner informed them a moment later. She walked over to the table and uncovered the body of a young man with brown hair.

The patterns of the cuts and bruises all over the man’s body really had a striking resemblance to the ones on their first victim.

“How did he even get here? None of us got a call about another murder.” Dean was puzzled.

“That’s because he was found a couple of miles out of your jurisdiction. Yesterday evening at about six the local cops were called because someone had found this poor guy near York. Of course I had to get over there because they don’t have their own morgue. Actually I doubt they’ve ever had a murder victim in their town before.”

“I’m going to talk to the sheriffs there when we’re done here, I know one of them,” Garth told Benny who nodded in agreement.

“Is there anything you can tell us about him by now?”

“I’d say he’s somewhere in his twenties, has been dead for at least 24 hours and probably suffered the same or at least similar things as your first victim. Due to the frostbites on the body I’d say he had already lain in the snow for maybe two days before he was found.”

Benny stepped closer to the table to take a better look. “Seems to be a similar pattern and the cuts look pretty much the same. Do you know if it was the same guy?”

“I can’t say it for sure yet but it is definitely possible. The cuts seem to be made by a piece of mirror again, there also are a few splinters. I’ll tell you more after the autopsy but before I get around to perform it on him I have another body so I scheduled it for five p.m.”

“Okay, I’ll be there,” Benny assured the ME. “See you later.”

Leaving the morgue he assigned the tasks. Garth and Dean would drive to York immediately, offer their help and try to find out more and Benny would take Jo and talk to the forensic scientists that had been at the crime scene before attending the autopsy later. Garth said the sheriffs probably wouldn’t mind them investigating with them until the coroner could confirm if it was the same murderer or not.

***

While Dean drove them to York Garth entered the young man’s photo into the database and started looking for matches in the missing persons files. The ride took nearly an hour and the two detectives reflected about the case – or cases.

“So you know one of the sheriffs here?” Dean asked after he had parked in front of York’s small police station.

“Yes, met her a few years back at a police training. She’s great. And a really good cop.” Garth got out of the Impala and walked into the station, Dean following right behind.

They were greeted by the distrustful looks of two sheriffs. Of course most police men didn’t like outsiders to butt into their cases but Dean had a feeling this case would be assigned to his team soon anyway.

“Hey buddy, good to see you,” a female voice declared before anyone could say anything. The brunette woman in sheriff’s uniform grinned up at Garth. “I had no idea you were working this case.”

“You know them?” one of the male sheriffs asked.

“I know him,” she pointed at Garth, “he’s an old friend of mine. So why don’t you make yourselves comfortable and we talk about the cases?” She deliberately ignored her partners’ death stares.

“Thank you for agreeing to talk to us,” Dean said.

“Guess we should introduce ourselves first. I’m Sheriff Jody Mills, these are Sheriff Britton and Deputy Amici.” Jody pointed at her two partners who still looked pretty pissed.

“Detective Dean Winchester.” Dean and Jody shook hands before she and the two detectives sat down at her desk.

“Why don’t you boys start by telling us about your victim before we talk about that poor boy that was found in the middle of nowhere last night?” Jody suggested.

Dean liked her instantly, she seemed like a nice person and Garth obviously thought highly of her. He began summarising everything they knew so far which admittedly wasn’t much.

***

At half past seven Dean and Garth were back at the precinct and met Benny there. He told them that the autopsy had only revealed that they were probably dealing with the same killer. It was the exact same MO but nothing else had come up. Garth then told Benny what Jody had told them which was even less than what they had.

“So you two didn’t get a name either?”

“Nope. Nothing. There’s no missing person that matches this description and nothing else to identify him, no wallet, no cell phone and the only thing he had in his pockets was an old, crumpled, completely wet and unreadable business card.”

“Forensics are working on trying to find out what kind of card that is,” Dean added.

“Alright. This is officially our case now but if York wants to help they’re welcome to do so,” Benny informed them.

Dean huffed. “Those sheriffs will be thrilled about that… Doubt that they wanna help.”

“I’m sure Jody would like to be a part of this, she always wanted to have a bigger case than the usual bar fights and burglaries.”

“You can call and ask her if she officially wants to assist us.”

“Will do.” Garth grabbed his phone and dialled Sheriff Miller’s number.

While Garth was talking to Jody Benny’s mobile rang. He answered the call and listened for a few moments, then sat down in front of his computer and hung up.

“That was one of the forensic guys, they found out what the business card is from. Here, they sent a photo of it.” He opened his mail account and showed Dean and Garth who had finished his call as well the photograph of a wrinkled card.

“You have to be kidding me…” Dean sighed.

“’Ghostfacers’? What’s that supposed to be? Some kind of ghost hunters?” Garth asked, looking over Benny’s shoulder at the screen.

“Guess so. Do some research and background checks on them, will ya? Let’s go talk to them, Dean, there’s an address.” Dean got his jacket and Benny printed the picture of the dead man’s face Tessa had sent him before he followed his partner to his car.


	5. Monsters and Mirrors

“Yeah?” A young guy with messy brown hair, glasses and stubble on his cheeks opened the garage door. Benny and Dean had become even more sceptical when the owner of the house – apparently the father of one of the Ghostfacers – had sent them to the garage. They didn’t even really want to know what this was all about but they didn’t have any other choice.

“Police.” They showed their badges and stepped forward. “Mr Zeddmore?”

“Um, yeah, that’s me.”

“We need to talk to you and your friends. Can we come in?”

“If this is about the entering of that old abandoned house last week, we have nothing to do with that...”

Two other young men and a young woman peered at the detectives, looking quite uncomfortable. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about and frankly I don’t care. We’re here for another reason. Now, can we come in?” Dean asked impatiently.

“I guess…” The guy opened the door a little further and let them enter the garage.

“So you are the Ghostfacers?” Benny made sure.

“Yes, Sir. What is this about?” One of the other men came forward to stand next to his friend.

“We are investigating a case and the name of your…club came up. Is there anyone else beside you or are these all of your members?”

“We are paranormal investigators, not a club. And yes, this is everyone. That’s Harry Spangler, Kenny Spruce and that’s my adopted sister Maggie.” Ed pointed at each one of the Ghostfacers.

“Well, we had an intern but after one of our cases we didn’t see him again. Probably was freaked out too much by that ghost,” Harry added.

Dean had an uneasy feeling in his gut.

“Ghost?” Benny echoed. “You kids know there’s no such things as ghosts.”

“Oh, ghosts are real. And all kinds of other monsters, too,” Ed stated with all certainty.

Dean raised a brow and tried to stay serious. “Yeah? You ever seen one?”

Benny cut his partner a look before staring back at the Ghostfacers. “So when was this… case of yours?”

“About two weeks ago,” Maggie answered. 

“A bit more precisely?”

“That was… fifteen days ago, right?” Harry looked at Ed who nodded.

“That intern of yours, who was that? What can you tell us about him? We might need to talk to him, too.” 

“His name’s Corbett. Alan J. Corbett. Started as our intern and cook a few weeks ago, not sure why though,” Ed answered. “He’s always pretty nervous and started panicking easily.”

“You know exactly why he wants to be a Ghostfacer,” his sister said dryly, arms crossed.

Harry agreed with her. “Yup, he totally has a thing for you, Ed. How can you not notice that?”

“Alright, that’s great, why don’t you discuss that later and call him now? We want to talk to him too.”

At Benny’s request the Ghostfacers huffed. “We tried that already a few times but he doesn’t answer his phone. Couldn’t reach him for the past two weeks.”

Benny and Dean cast a glance at each other. “What does he look like?” Dean asked.

“Yea high, blue eyes I think, brown wavy hair, slender…”

Benny pulled the photograph out of his pocket and showed it to Ed and Harry. “That him?”

The young men’s eyes widened in shock as they stared at the pale face. The picture didn’t show the cut on the victim’s neck but it was obvious he was dead.

Ed slowly looked up and nodded. “Yes, that’s Corbett. We… we had no idea… What happened to him?”

“We can’t tell you more than that he has been murdered because it’s an ongoing investigation. So when exactly was the last time you saw him?”

“We dropped him off at home after that case two weeks ago, must’ve been Thursday morning at about ten past three. He didn’t show up to our next official meeting which was five days later and when we called him he didn’t pick up. That was a bit unusual but we thought he might have been scared off by the ghost.”

Dean ignored the last part and went on. “Did he mention anything about problems with anyone, having a feeling that he was being followed or anything else out of the ordinary?”

Harry thought for a few moments and shook his head. “No, nothing.”

“Don’t think so either,” Maggie negated.

“Can’t recall anything like that.” Ed shrugged helplessly.

Benny asked his next question. “Do you know anyone who would want to harm him?”

“We barely knew him at all. It’s not like we talk much about personal things during team meetings or while we’re on a case.”

“Anything else you can tell us?”

“Not really. You should talk to his parents, they can probably tell you way more. We don’t know where exactly they live but we have his address somewhere…” Harry walked to the other end of the garage and rummaged in a cupboard.

“So Thursday morning was the last time any of you talked to you?”

“Yes, sir.”

Dean took his phone and went through his pictures until he found a photograph of Bass that had been taken a few weeks before his death. “Any of you ever seen this man?” He showed it to every one of the Ghostfacers but none of them seemed to recognise him.

“Does he have anything to do with Corbett’s death?” Maggie asked.

“We don’t know yet. Are you sure you don’t know him?”

The Ghostfacers nodded in unison. Harry handed Benny a note with Corbett’s contact information. 

“Is there anything else we can do?”

“No, that’s it for the moment but we might have other questions later. Thank you for your cooperation.”

The detectives turned and headed back to their car to take a look at Corbett’s flat. Benny called Bobby and Garth on the way to let them know what they had found out. Garth would try to figure out where the victim’s parents lived and why no one had reported him missing.

***

Just before midnight they had decided to continue investigating the next day and get forensics to search the flat thoroughly. The dead man’s wallet and cell phone were nowhere to be found, just like Bass’s. Garth had tried to contact Corbett’s parents but couldn’t get a hold of them.

When Dean parked in front of his apartment building he noticed the light in the living room. Of course Cas was still awake and probably working.

Dean quietly entered the flat, took off his jacket and shoes and walked into the living room, stopping right behind Cas and wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist as he kissed the back of his neck. Cas winced lightly.

“I didn’t hear you come in.” He turned around in Dean’s arms.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I missed you.”

Cas squinted at Dean. “Are you alright? You look exhausted.” 

“Hard day, we have another body…” Dean buried his face in the crook of Castiel’s neck and breathed in the scent of his boyfriend and paint.

“What about you get yourself something to eat while I clean everything up? Bet you forgot to eat again.”

“Fine…” Dean grumbled but Cas was right. Now that he thought about it he realised he was incredibly hungry. He went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich before returning to the living room and carefully making some space to sit on the sofa.

Cas was cleaning his brushes and looked over. “So these bodies are connected somehow?”

“Yes. It’s the exact same MO and the fact that all the cuts were caused by mirror shards was never published so a copycat is very unlikely.”

“The killer used mirror shards to kill these men?” Cas raised a brow. “That’s strange.”

“You’re right about that, we don’t know yet why he uses them, doesn’t seem to make much sense. The other cuts on his body were caused the same way. I don’t have to tell you all of this is confidential.” Dean sighed, finished his food and brought his plate back into the kitchen.

“I think you really could need a distraction.” Cas had followed him, was leaning against the kitchen door and watched Dean drinking a sip of water.

“And what exactly do you have in mind?” Dean set down the glass and took Cas’s proffered hand.

“Let’s go to the bedroom and I’ll show you.” Cas smirked up at him and pulled Dean into the hallway.

“What about we take a shower together instead?” Dean grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

“That sounds even better.” Cas opened the door and stepped into the bathroom.

Not even taking the time to close the door behind them Dean pushed Cas against the wall and pressed their lips together as Castiel’s hands slid under Dean’s shirts and ran over his skin. They broke the kiss only for a few seconds to take off their shirts before their bodies collided again.

Cas fumbled around with the buckle of Dean’s belt for a moment and unbuttoned Dean’s pants before pulling his own trousers down. They didn’t waste any time, a few seconds later both men were undressed and Dean’s hands were all over the smaller man’s body while Cas slowly shoved Dean to the other side of the bathroom, not breaking the kiss as his hands searched for the lube in the mirror cabinet, knocking several tubes and cans over in the process.

“You got it?” Dean panted against Cas’s lips. 

Castiel’s fingers finally wrapped around the right tube, his other hand grabbed the back of Dean’s neck to pull him into another kiss while he took a few steps back, pulling Dean with him into the shower and finally letting go of him to turn on the water.

***

When Dean woke up five hours later the other side of the bed was empty. He ran his hands through his messy hair, got up and went looking for Cas.

“Morning.” Cas looked up from his laptop and smiled at Dean when he noticed him walking into the living room.

“Why’re you awake at this time?” Dean yawned and blinked tiredly.

“I didn’t sleep much, what you told me kept me awake. And I actually might have found something.”

“Cas, what’re you talkin’ about?” He definitely needed caffeine before going to work.

“I remembered that mirrors are a vanitas symbol and related to death or the devil since the Middle Ages and especially in Baroque paintings and such. Then I started thinking about that ‘seven years bad luck when you break a mirror’ superstition and I got curious.”

“Okay… Lemme just get a cup of coffee and I’m all ears. You want one too?”

“Sure, thanks.” Cas looked back at the laptop in front of him.

A few minutes later Dean, who was now dressed, handed Castiel a steaming cup and sat down next to him, sipping his own coffee. “What else did you find out?”

“The most common theory is that the reflection has something to do with a human’s soul, meaning it either is a part of it, the soul itself or a person’s doppelgänger. If you destroy a mirror and therefore the reflection you either destroy the soul or harm that doppelgänger and in that case it takes vengeance, hence the seven years of bad luck.”

“But that’s nothing but superstition,” Dean interjected.

“Yes, but there are still many people believing in such things.” Cas looked at him.

Dean wasn’t completely convinced. “So you’re saying the killer might be one of those people?”

“Maybe. You know, there’s more. Mirrors and even human reflections in water have a long tradition in art and literature.”

“Alright, go on.”

“Even in Christian traditions mirrors are damned because they are a symbol for death and evil, it has something to do with the time when people used to believe in demons, vampires and other monsters. Vampires don’t have a reflection and some people say demons don’t have one either. Then there’s the part with turning a mirror around or covering it when someone has died. Some people believe that the dead person’s soul could get caught or at least hold up by passing a mirror. There are also stories about people selling their reflections to the devil like the one by E.T.A. Hoffman.”

“Please don’t tell me you believe in this stuff, too. I already got my share of crazy people who believe in monsters and the supernatural this week...”

“I don’t, but humans have believed in the evil, deadly or at least magical aspects of a person’s reflection since ancient times. Just think about Narcissus, he couldn’t leave his reflection and finally died because of that. Or Dionysus who was lured by the Titans with a mirror so that they could kill him.”

“Wait, isn’t that a Greek god or something?”

“Yes, the only one who died and came back to life. My point is that these beliefs are thousands of years old and some people still think they are true. I’m not saying your murderer necessarily is one of them but that could make sense.”

“He’s torturing them, destroying their souls and hindering them from leaving the earth and going to heaven or whatever by using broken mirrors?”

Cas shrugged. “If these murders are about revenge or something like that it is possible, don’t you think?”

Dean couldn’t deny this logic. “So let’s say that this is the case… He’s doing everything to hurt and destroy his victims, make them suffer, perhaps for days, and even wants to prevent them from entering the afterlife. What is his motif?”

“That’s your job to find out.” Cas leaned over and kissed Dean briefly. “By the way, I think you need to go to work if you don’t want to be late.”

Dean glanced at the clock. “Fuck, you’re right.” He got up to head for the bathroom but stopped at the door and turned around again.

“Thanks for everything, really. It all seems completely weird but you have a point, maybe this killer is so pissed at his victims that he’d do anything that seems reasonable to him to make their last days on earth and everything that might come after that a living hell.”


	6. Theories and Suppositions

Arriving ten minutes late at the precinct Dean hurried up the stairs to the office he, Benny and Garth were sharing.

“You look like you have some news,” Garth noticed when Dean went straight over to his desk, placed his hands on its surface and leaned forward to face his colleague. 

“I might have. Benny already in?”

“Yup, he’s getting coffee. Should be back in a few.”

“Good. Did you reach Corbett’s parents yet?” One of them needed to talk to them as soon as possible.

“Yeah, Benny will meet them in half an hour and question them. Didn’t want to tell them their son is dead on the phone so he’ll do that as well...”

In that moment, Benny entered the room and looked at them curiously. “Hey, where’ve you been? You’re never late.”

“Sorry ‘bout that but Cas had a brainwave, apparently did some research this morning and told me what he’d found out before I left.”

“Alright, what came to your boyfriend’s mind?”

Dean summarised Cas’s thoughts and ended with his conclusion that the killer might have a very personal motif. “What do you guys think about all of this?”

His partners considered everything for a few moments.

Benny slowly nodded. “Seems reasonable.”

“If that’s the case there has to be a connection between the victims,” Garth added.

“I’ll ask his parents if they know Bass when I’m there. Garth, you talk to forensics and go to Corbett’s flat with them, see if they find anything and talk to his neighbours. I’ll tell Bradbury to try and trace both of their cell phones. Dean, I want you to ask Harvelle if Corbett’s phone records are in already, if so tell her to compare them to Bass’s, she should have those somewhere. You two look into both of their credit card records, friends, places they went to regularly, just everything they might have in common. We need to find that connection.”

“Got it.” Garth put on his jacket and walked out the door.

“Let’s hope we find something soon,” Benny mumbled as he left the office as well, Dean following close behind but heading into the opposite direction once they were in the hallway. 

“Oh, and tell Bobby about all of this, will you? He wanted us to keep him posted,” Benny called after Dean.

Dean nodded and started looking for Jo. Eventually he found her on the third floor in the break room, brewing herself a cup of tea.

“Hey there, you up for some ‘real’ police work?” He smirked at her as her face lit up.

“Sure. What is it?” 

“Don’t be too enthusiastic, we gotta look through the victims’ personal lives but it has to be done.”

Jo shrugged and followed Dean into the hallway. “Anything I can do to help. I take it we’re looking for a connection between the two of them?”

“Yup. We think this job is pretty personal. It’s unlikely that the murderer tortured them for any kind of information so that leaves a personal motif. Or he’s simply a sadistic nutjob but I kinda doubt that. You got the second victim’s phone records?”

“Yeah, they came in last night. I’ll go get them.”

“I want you to come to our office then, let’s go through everything there.”

Jo nodded and walked off. A few minutes later she appeared in the doorframe, file in hand. In the meantime Dean had gotten Bobby up to speed.

“You can sit over there, I’m sure Garth doesn’t mind.” Dean nodded at one of the empty desks and the officer sat down.

They had been working in silence for a while, Jo checking phone and Dean credit card records when Dean’s mobile beeped to announce a message.

Dean took his feet off the desk, leaned forward and grabbed his phone to check the text. It was Sam who wanted to know if they could meet for lunch later. The detective replied and delved back into his work.

Four hours and not a single new clue later he got up and stretched his back. “I’m taking a break and getting lunch with my brother. You should break off for lunch, too.”

Jo looked up from her papers and smiled. “Alright, I’ll just finish this list first. See you later.”

Dean left the building and walked the two blocks to the diner where he was supposed to meet Sam. When he stepped inside he already saw his younger brother’s tall figure at one of the tables.

“Hiya, Sammy,” he greeted him as he slid on the chair across from his brother.

“Hey.” Sam smiled at him. “It’s good to see you. I know you’re busy but it seems like you haven’t had much time for anything besides work in the past couple of weeks. Last time we saw each other was on your birthday. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Now and then not really getting enough sleep but otherwise I’m good. What about you?”

“I’m great.”

A waitress came to their table and took their orders.

“So how’s your internship at that law firm?”

“It’s really good, I learn a lot and the boss is strict but we get along pretty well.”

“And?” Dean cocked a brow.

“What ‘and’?”

“C’mon, Sammy, I know you, there’s more. So, what is it?”

“Why do you always have to be so nosy?” Sam rolled his eyes.

“I’m a cop, that’s my job. Plus I gotta take care of my baby brother.”

“Dean, we barely see each other when you’re working cases. And I’m 24, I can take care of myself. You don’t always have to look out for me.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Now tell me, what else is there? I know you’re not telling me something.” Dean leaned closer and smirked.

“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?” Sam sighed and thanked the waitress as she brought their drinks.

“I’m waiting, Sammy.”

“Fine. There’s this girl working at the reception of the building and she seems really nice.”

Dean’s grin widened. “Oh, Gabriel will be really disappointed.”

“Gabriel? What does that have to do with him?”

“Cas told me he’s been asking about you pretty much every time they talk. Thinks you’re ‘gorgeous’.” The older Winchester winked at his brother. “Anyway, tell me about her. You ever talked to her?”

“You’re a jerk.” Sam huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“His words, not mine. Bitch. So?”

“Well, her name is Jess, we always say hi and talk a bit, went out once and…”

“You went out? When? How’d it go? Man, you never tell me anything.” 

Sam shrugged. “You never ask.” 

“Well now I’m asking.”

“Whatever. Yeah, we went out last weekend. It was nice, we talked a lot about everything and anything and had a good time.”

The waitress returned to their table with a salad for Sam and a burger for Dean before leaving again.

“Is she cute?” Dean took the burger in his hands and dug in.

“Yes she is.” Sam watched his brother for a moment, shaking his head but not being able to hide a smile. “You’re disgusting.”

The older Winchester just snorted and continued eating.

“So this case of yours, how’s it going?”

“Pretty slow. Two victims but nearly no clues at all. We don’t know where they died, where they were held captive before their deaths or for how long, we only know they definitely were. Don’t really have a motif yet either. In other words, we basically don’t have shit.”

“Sorry to hear that. How bad is it?” Sam looked at his big brother closely.

“Real bad, Sammy. The kind that can give you nightmares.”

The younger Winchester stared at Dean. He knew his brother well enough to know that there was nearly nothing that caused him nightmares. “The newspapers just said the bodies had cuts and were bruised but that’s all. What did really happen?”

Dean knew he could trust his brother but he hesitated for a moment nonetheless. “They were tortured before they died. According to the ME the killer knew what he was doing and it probably wasn’t his first time.”

Sam was silent for a few seconds before speaking. “Do you think he’ll do it again?”

“Yes. And I have no idea how to prevent it from happening.” The detective put down the rest of his burger and leaned back against the chair.

“This case is unsettling you.” It was a statement that hit the mark.

“Y’know, all the things this killer does to his victims… It’s terrifying.” There simply was no other way to put it.

“I’m sure you’ll get him. How many people are working the case?”

“At the moment just Benny, Garth, me and an officer. It’s not handled as a serial murder yet because it’s ‘only’ two. And I really hope we get him before he picks his next victim.”

***

The first small breakthrough came in the form of a phone call. It was nearly five p.m. when Dean’s phone rang.

“Detective Winchester.”

“Hey Dean, it’s Charlie. I couldn’t get Benny on the phone so I thought I’d call you.”

“What’s up?”

“I traced your victims’ mobile phones and checked whether their credit cards were used after they disappeared. If the killer has the latter he certainly didn’t use them and he must’ve switched off the phones. However I was able to pinpoint the time and location they were turned on lastly.”

Dean searched for a pen and grabbed a note pad. “Where and when was that?”

“I checked which telephone poles the phones pinged and could narrow it down, the first victim’s cell was turned off ten blocks away from his home at 6.51 p.m. the day he went missing, the second one’s at 4.24 p.m. at his place. After that they have never been switched on again. I’ll start checking surveillance and traffic cameras right away.”

“Great, let me know if you find anything suspicious or need any help.”

“Sure thing.”

“Thanks.” Dean hung up and told Jo what Charlie had said.

“So the murderer might have abducted the second victim at home,” Jo assumed.

“It’s definitely possible.” From his phone records they knew that Corbett had used his phone a lot and probably barely turned it off.

Dean texted Benny the news and called Garth to tell him to ask the neighbours if they’d heard or seen anything or anyone at that certain point of time and check for any signs of forced entry again.

“Maybe we’re lucky and someone saw him or we even have that son of a bitch on camera…” he mumbled to himself.


	7. Not Alone

Unfortunately no one was able to find out anything about the murderer in the next two weeks. Not a single person had seen or heard anything and the cameras weren’t any help either.

A few days after Corbett’s body had been found forensics had identified a tiny amount of powder residues on his clothes as light blue paint particles. Since they didn’t match any of the colours in his flat, the Ghostfacer’s garage or his parents’ home the forensic scientists were still trying to figure out what kind of paint it was and where it might have been used. It was a long shot but all they had.

Other than that the analysis of the fibres found on the victims’ clothes, their skin and under their nails was inconclusive. The rope the perpetrator had used was too common to give them any new clues and everything else had proved to be insignificant.

It also remained a mystery why the killer had dressed his victims after he had killed them. All the evidence was indicative that the two men had been fully undressed when they were tortured and their clothes barely were bloody so the murderer must have dressed them again sometime after their death. None of this made any sense.

Even the warmer weather march brought in its wake couldn’t improve the team’s mood in the slightest. The atmosphere was taut, the tension nearly tangible and everyone was dreading another body showing up.

Cas noticed Dean was getting more and more withdrawn and lost in thought. He stayed at the precinct even longer than usually, reviewing the case files again and again. Castiel watched Dean’s frustration slowly turn into hopelessness.

“All of us are just waiting for a call announcing there’s been another murder,” Dean murmured one night when they were lying in bed. “And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. We haven’t found a single damn thing connecting those guys… Well, except for their first names starting with A but that’s really not much.” He sighed.

Cas pulled his boyfriend closer, arms wrapped tightly around the taller man’s body. “You will find something, I know it.”

“What if it’s too late? For all we know he could be with his next victim right now. Corbett was abducted about a week after that guy killed Bass, and he has been dead for approximately two weeks now. The murderer must’ve spent five or six days torturing them before he killed and dumped them. If he continues like this it’s only a matter of days, maybe hours till the next one shows up.”

There was no point arguing with that. “Theoretically the killer could be a woman too, right? I mean you don’t know for sure if it’s a man.”

“Theoretically yes. But there are only very few female serial killers so we assume it’s a guy.”

Cas replied nothing. He didn’t know how to comfort Dean, had never seen him like this and felt helpless.

“Sometimes I wonder how it would be like to have a ‘normal’ job, you know? Normal office hours, not coming home in the middle of the night, actually getting enough sleep…”

“But you’re good at your job. You help people, make sure that the city is safe…”

“But I can’t save them, Cas. It’s always too late when we start investigating, those people are already dead!”

“Hey, shh…” Cas cupped Dean’s face with his hands. “You do everything in your power and you prevent criminals from harming even more people. You’re doing a great job. And you’ll get this guy as well.”

Dean sighed and leaned his forehead against Cas’s. “Still feels like it’s not enough.”

“I know it’s hard… But you can’t give up. If you do that you’re letting those men down and you know it. You and your partners are the only ones who can do justice to them. Remember, you have a monster to catch.”

“You’re right.” Dean closed his eyes and snuggled up against Cas. “Thanks, Cas. I’m really glad I’m not alone with this.”

Cas smiled and pressed a kiss to Dean’s temple before slowly falling asleep.

***

When Cas woke up on Monday morning Dean was already gone. He got up, had breakfast and realised with a look into the fridge that it was time to do some grocery shopping. It was past noon when he got back. Since he still had a few days to finish his current job of illustrating a children’s book about dragons and sea monsters – way more interesting than the usual football, animal or princess stories – he decided to take the day off and spend some time sketching outside.

He packed a sketch block, pencils, an eraser and some food and left the flat to go to the park. After having sat on a bench, enjoying the sunshine on his face and drawing for a few hours he sat back and watched the people around him. He noticed a little girl petting a stray cat while her mother had her eye on the child.

For the first time in a couple of days he remembered the cat he’d taken in for a few hours before he had brought him to the animal shelter. Cas wondered if the cat was still there and chose to stop by.

It didn’t take him long to walk the few blocks to the animal shelter. He went inside and explained why he was there to the man at the front desk.

“If you want you can see if the cat’s still here. We actually don’t have many people coming around to just see the animals.”

He opened the door to the room where most of the animals were held. Cas took a look at all the cats, sitting in cages, some of them staring back at him, and recognised one of them. He stepped closer to the cat’s cage.

“There he is.” He smiled at the animal that seemed to recognise him as well.

“You wanna adopt him after you dropped him off?” The staff member looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Unfortunately I can’t.” Cas hesitated for a moment. “Could I pet him?”

“Fine with me. The animals here are barely being petted so they’re happy if there’s someone. Just take care that he doesn’t run away.” The man opened the cage and Cas carefully reached for the cat.

“Hey there…” The cat squinted up at him, sniffed at his hand and finally rubbed his head against it as he started purring.

“It’s too bad no one has adopted any of you yet,” Cas murmured as he looked around the room at all the cats, dogs, the few bunnies and birds and the pair of guinea pigs. If he could he would probably take all of them with him but he knew Dean would be everything but happy about that.

“Maybe one day…” he thought as he scratched the cat’s head.

“Y’know, you can come by and spend some time with them now and then if you want.” Cas hadn’t even heard the man come back.

He turned and smiled at the man. “If you don’t mind that would be nice.”

“No, not at all. As I said, there’s pretty much no one that just comes to visit the pets and give them some attention. We can’t do that all the time.”

“That’s great, I’d really love to see them occasionally.” Cas focused his attention back on the pets when the employee left again.

He didn’t even know how much time had passed and how many animals he’d talked to and petted carefully when he noticed that it was nearly dark outside. Reluctantly he left the shelter and headed home.

Of course Dean wasn’t home yet since it was only past seven. Cas cooked himself dinner and started working on his illustrations again. He knew his boyfriend rarely was home before midnight so he didn’t think about it as it got later without any sign of him. At quarter past two he decided to call it a day and got ready for bed.

Half an hour later Cas fell into a restless sleep, he just wasn’t used to sleeping alone anymore and to tell the truth he was worried about Dean. When he woke up at quarter to five to find that the other half of the bed was still empty fear gnawed at him. He felt for his mobile phone in the dark, gripped it and dialled Dean’s number.

His heart pounded as the phone rang for the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth time. “Please pick up…”

After two more rings he finally heard Dean’s rough voice. “Winchester.”

“Dean, are you alright?” Cas sank back into the pillow, phone pressed to his ear.

“Cas? Oh crap, I didn’t call you, did I? I’m sorry, must’ve forgotten about it.” His boyfriend sounded bone-tired and exhausted.

Castiel could hear voices in the background. “Dean, what is going on?”

“Another body was found. I’m at the crime scene right now and probably won’t be home before sometime this evening. Sorry, didn’t want to unsettle you…”

“It’s alright. Just be careful, okay?”

“Of course. It’s not like the corpse will come back to life,” Dean mocked tiredly.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know, Cas. I’ll take care, okay? Now you go get some sleep. See you tonight.” With that Dean ended the call.

Cas stared at the phone for a while. Another body. He could only imagine how Dean must feel. Heaving a sigh Cas rolled over to Dean’s side of the bed and buried his face in the other man’s pillow. It took him a lot longer than usually to fall asleep again and the concern for Dean followed him into his dreams.

***

“Same MO as the other two,” Tessa confirmed a couple of hours later as she examined the lanky body. “Congratulations, now it’s officially a serial murder.”

“Nothing to felicitate,” Benny growled.

The whole team was tired out and in a bad mood, the only thing keeping them awake lots of caffeine. This time all three detectives were attending the autopsy. The only thing distinguishing this corpse from the other two was that it hadn’t been frozen by the temperatures outside and had started decomposing. 

“We found something in his jeans pocket.” The coroner turned and picked up a small piece of paper from a table. “Here.”

A name and phone number were scribbled on the note.

“Let’s see if this Demian can help us.” Garth punched in the numbers and went into the hallway to make the call.

“Anything else unusual?”

“Assuming that you mean anything different from the other bodies, no. He was stun with a Taser, bound at his wrists, has marks on his neck, was obviously beaten up and tortured and then the killer cut his throat. It only took longer to find him, judging by the outside temperature in the last few days and de level of decomposition I’d say he’s been dead for about six days.”

“Alright. Thanks, doc.” Dean and Benny left the dissecting room and joined Garth who was still talking on the phone in the hallway.

“Yes… Thank you, Sir. See you later.”

“So?” Dean asked when Garth had hung up.

“The man this number belongs to will meet us at the precinct in twenty minutes. Hope he’ll be able to help us.”


	8. Motifs

Garth led the possible witness into their office. “Please take a seat, Mr…”

“Just call me Demian.” The chubby man sat down and interlaced his fingers nervously. “Why am I here?”

“You have nothing to worry about. Your name and phone number came up in an investigation and we were hoping you could help us with some facts.” As always Garth was the impersonation of a good cop.

“Oh, okay. What kind of investigation?”

“Homicide.” Benny leaned against the desk and looked down at the man whose eyes widened.

“Homicide? Who…? What do I have to do with that?” Demian was visibly shocked.

“We found a note with your name and number in the victim’s pocket.” Benny reached for a photograph of the dead man’s face and showed it to the stunned man. “Ever seen him?”

If possible Demian’s eyes grew even wider as he stared at the picture in disbelief and swallowed. “Oh no…” He glanced up at Benny for a split second before looking at the photo again. “Is he really… dead?” His voice was barely audible.

“Yes. I take it you know him?” Benny leaned a few inches forward automatically.

The man nodded faintly. “His first name is Barnes, I don’t know his last name. We met about two weeks ago at a gay bar. He was really nice, we talked for hours and he made me laugh a lot. We… we started flirting and I gave him my number before I went home.”

“Can you tell us anything else about him?” They needed more than a first name.

“I have his number…” Demian searched his pockets for his cell phone and finally pulled it out, tapped the screen a few times and handed Garth the phone. “Here. He called me two days later and asked if I wanted to see him again. We were supposed to meet last weekend but he never showed up. I thought he’d stood me up and when I called him he didn’t answer…”

Garth took the phone and wrote down the phone number before handing it back to its owner and sitting down in front of his computer to see what he could find out about the number.

“I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you about him. We mostly talked about books, games and roleplaying, not that much about our families or such.”

Benny nodded. “Thank you for talking to us, you have been very helpful. If you recall anything else don’t hesitate to call us.”

“Of course.” The man got up and left, still shaken.

“Poor guy,” Garth mumbled. A moment later he glanced up from the computer. “I found something. Here, that’s his full name.”

He pointed at the screen when Benny stepped behind him and called up a photo. “Definitely the same guy. Works at a comic book store.”

“Hey, is the witness already gone?” Dean’s voice caused them to look up as their colleague entered the office.

“Yeah, he was quite helpful. We have a name. What are the news forensics were talking about?”

“That’s finally some good news… Remember these traces of paint that were found at the second victim’s clothes? Despite the body fluids all over this one’s clothes forensics found the exact same stuff on the fabric so the killer has to keep them at the same place. They’re still not completely sure what kind of paint it is but they think it was probably used inside. Makes sense I guess. So what did that guy tell you?”

Benny summed up what they’d found out while Garth called Charlie to let her trace the phone number’s last location.

“Wait a second,” Dean said when Benny finished. “Where did they meet?”

“Some gay bar downtown. I want you to go there while Garth goes to the victim’s flat with some of the forensic guys to question the neighbours and I’ll talk to his family and his co-worker.”

Dean walked over to his desk, grabbed the files and skimmed trough them hectically.

“Dude, what’s up with you?” Garth looked at his friend with irritation.

“I think I just found our connection. This guy is gay, those Ghostfacer kids said Corbett had a crush on one of the guys and if Bass is gay too… We got anything on his sexual orientation?”

“I don’t think so… Lemme just call his parents, maybe they know it.” Benny dialled their number.

“Hate crime of the worst kind, huh… Man, if this is the connection this guy is even more nuts than any of us thought…” Garth muttered. “Now we just have to figure out where he finds them.”

Dean snorted. “Definitely. But releasing a warning when we know nothing about this guy doesn’t make much sense, it might only scare him off.”

Meanwhile Benny had ended his call. “His mother confirmed that Bass dated at least two guys in the past few years. Guess we finally found our motif. Good job. Now let’s go to work and bring this son of a bitch down.”

The detectives divided and assailed their tasks. Dean arrived at the bar only minutes later and went inside to talk to the staff and the few customers. The barkeepers he questioned affirmed Demian’s statement that he and Barnes had been there two weeks ago but didn’t recognise the other victims and neither did any of the other men.

There were a few other meeting places for homosexuals in the city and Dean was just about to get into the Impala to ask around at every one of them when he got a text from Charlie with location and point of time Barnes’ mobile was turned on lastly. It had been switched off at his home six days after Corbett’s body had been found.

He called Jo to tell her to check into all phone records again, including the new ones, and then help Charlie with looking for any places they all might have visited based on their phones’ GPS data.

***

The sun was setting when Dean returned to the precinct. No one else had recognised any of the men so the detective had decided to go back and add everything they knew about Barnes to the timeline they had established. When he was done writing on the whiteboard he took a step back to get an overview. Since they didn’t have the exact time of death or even a reasonably accurate time frame it was hard to say exactly how many days had passed between a murder and the next abduction but it probably was a time span of roughly a week.

“If he continues like this he’ll abduct his next victim very soon.”

Dean winced and turned to face his partner. “Dammit, Benny, you’re like a frickin’ vampire or something, no one ever hears you coming in.”

Benny smirked, shrugged and stepped closer to the whiteboard. “I’ve been searching in every database for similar murders and checked the guys arrested for hate crimes of this type but there are hundreds of them. They usually don’t torture but still, could be any one of those guys.”

“Did his family or the co-worker in that comic book shop have any useful information?” Dean flopped down into his chair and rubbed his eyes.

“Not really but he must’ve been abducted between Monday and Thursday, called in sick Monday morning and when his sister tried to reach him on Thursday he didn’t pick up. What about you, got anything?”

“The bartenders confirmed that he was there occasionally and I checked all the other gay bars but no one else seemed to know any of them.”

Benny’s phone interrupted them. He answered the call and muttered his name. Dean got curious as he noticed a change in his partner’s voice and looked up at him.

“I’ll see what I can do, just bring her in. … Yeah, got it.”

Dean raised a brow. “Who was that?”

“Garth. One of the neighbours remembered seeing some guy sneaking around the victim’s home on Wednesday morning. Says she might be able to provide us with a sketch so I’m gonna go look for the sketch artist.”

A faint smile lit Dean’s face but he didn’t dare raising too much hope. This was too good to be true. When Benny had left Dean got up and headed for the room where the techs were accommodated. He knocked and waited for an answer before opening the door and stepping inside. Since he’d caught Charlie making out with a female officer once he’d to gotten into the way of announcing his presence before he entered the room. Mostly because the IT tech would probably be pissed again if he didn’t.

Two pairs of eyes glanced up at him. Jo and Charlie were sitting behind a desk with three screens in front of them and judging by their faces they hadn’t found anything.

“Hey, just wanted to give you a heads up that we have a witness and she’ll talk to the sketch artist soon. Hopefully we’ll get a good description, if so your job might get a bit easier.”

“No shit,” Charlie grumbled. “Do you have any idea how many traffic and surveillance cameras we’ve checked today? And we didn’t find anything suspicious at all.”

“Listen, I really appreciate your work. We wouldn’t have asked you to do it if it weren’t important.” Dean stifled a yawn. “What time is it anyway?”

“7.18 p.m. You been up all night?”

“Yeah. I better get back to work, call Benny or me if you find anything.”

On his way back to the office he met Bobby and brought him up to date.

“Alright, boy, I think there’s nothing you can do at the moment, go home and get some rest. Tell your partners the same applies to them, one of the officers should stay with the witness and sketch artist. That’s an order,” he added as he saw that Dean wanted to argue.

“Yes, Sir.” He found Benny and Garth in the break room and passed Bobby’s instruction on before telling an officer to remain with the witness until she and the artist were done and send a photo of the sketch to Bobby, Benny, Garth and him afterwards.

It was nearly eight when Dean finally took the stairs to his flat and went inside. Cas must have been waiting for him because when the door clicked shut he appeared in the hallway.

“Hey…” Dean was greeted with a hug and sank against Cas’s chest, arms wrapped loosely around the smaller man’s waist. “You probably just want to sleep.”

“Shower first,” Dean mumbled and took a step back to take off his boots.

“I’ll make you something to eat,” Cas offered and supported Dean who was balancing on one leg.

“That’d be great.” Dean smiled, pecked Cas on the lips and was about to go into the bathroom when Cas tugged at his sleeve.

“I’m glad you’re home.” Castiel took Dean’s hand and pulled him close before tilting his head up and kissing Dean deeply for a couple of seconds.

“Me too.” Dean smiled tiredly, barely able to keep his eyes open, and shuffled into the bathroom. 

A few minutes later he appeared in the kitchen, hair still damp, and sat down on the small kitchen table. His mouthed started to water when Cas set a burger in front of him before taking his own and sitting down as well. 

“Thanks, that looks awesome.” Dean took a bite and sighed happily. “So what’ve you been up to the last two days?” He needed a sense of normality, needed to forget about the job for a while and knew Cas could give him just that.

“Not much besides working. You gotta take a look at the monsters I drew for that book, I think they’re pretty good.” Cas smiled at his boyfriend and licked the ketchup from his finger. “I was at the animal shelter yesterday, they were very nice and said I could stop by anytime I want.”

Dean raised a brow and swallowed before speaking. “You’re not gonna bring the cat back, are you? Anything but cats.”

“No, I’m just there to pet them and I like being surrounded by animals. But… are you saying you wouldn’t mind getting a pet?”

“Depends on the pet I guess. What were you thinking of?”

“Something small maybe. There’s a lovely pair of guinea pigs.” Cas looked at Dean, trying to figure out what he was thinking about his idea.

“Guinea pigs, huh? I think we should take a look at them together before we decide, what do you say?” A warm smile spread over Dean’s face. Damn, he loved this man with his beautiful blue eyes so much.

“Sounds like a plan.” Cas smiled back at him as Dean finished his food. “Just leave everything here, I’ll take care of it. You really need some rest.”

“Thank you.” Dean got up, yawned and went to brush his teeth. Before going to bed he went into the living room to find Cas working. He leaned down to take a look at the drawings of dragons and sea monsters and smiled. “They’re cute. I’m going to bed now, night.”

Cas stood up and hugged him. “Sleep well, I’ll come to bed in a few hours.”

The detective nodded, left the room and crawled into bed a few moments later. He fell asleep almost instantly and only stirred slightly when Cas slid under the blanket next to him after midnight.


	9. Walker

Castiel’s back was pressed against Dean’s chest when he woke up. Trying not to wake him Dean untangled their legs and carefully pulled his arm out of the other man’s embrace. He felt Cas tensing a little before he turned his head to face Dean and squint up at him, still half asleep.

“Morning.” Dean smiled as he took in the sight of Cas’s bed head and the tired look on his face.

“Hey…” Cas smiled back at him, turned around and nestled up to Dean. “You gotta get up for work?”

“I think I can stay in bed another minute or two,” Dean mumbled and ran his fingers through Cas’s hair. He’d slept like a log and the spark of hope had finally lightened his mood a bit. 

“Are you alright?” Cas’s voice was quiet as he looked at Dean with worry.

“Let’s say I’m a bit better than the last few days. We might finally have a solid lead.” Suddenly a thought crossed Dean’s mind. “Cas, promise me you’ll be careful when you go outside, okay? And don’t let anyone in here that you don’t know.”

“What?” Blue eyes squinted at the detective in confusion.

Dean let out a slow breath. “This bastard is targeting gay men so just… Take care, okay?”

“You found a connection and his motif?”

“He’s probably some sick homophobic fuck but yeah, we definitely have this connection.”

“Oh… Okay, sure, I’ll take care. I promise.”

“Good.” Dean pulled Cas closer and kissed him softly. Cas cupped Dean’s neck and pulled him into another longer and more passionate kiss. His breath came a little heavier when he pulled back again.

Dean glanced at the alarm clock and sighed. “Gotta get up, we have to catch that son of a bitch and we’ll hopefully do that sooner rather than later.”

He turned around and grabbed his cell phone from the night stand to check it. Last night the officer had sent him a photo of the composite sketch with a note that the witness’s description had been quite vague, other than that there was nothing new. He showed Cas the picture anyway and warned him again before rolling out of bed to get ready for work.

On the drive to the precinct he got a call from Benny who told him he’d set up a team meeting for everyone. When Dean walked into the conference room he realised Benny had literally meant everyone including Bobby, Charlie and Jody. Everyone seemed eager to get started.

“Alright, I’ll cut it short,” Benny started a few moments later. “If the killer keeps abducting his victims in roughly the same rhythm we don’t have much time, assuming it hasn’t already happened. The witness described a black male, presumably in his thirties or early forties, about six feet tall with very short dark hair. Here’s the sketch.” He pinned it on the whiteboard.

“This guy is the only solid lead we have and we need to find him. Bradbury, Harvelle, you continue to go through CCTV and traffic cams. Ask Ash for help and take another officer if necessary. Garth, Sheriff Mills, I want you to go back to Bass’s and Corbett’s home and ask around if anyone there has seen this man. Dean and I will question the latest victim’s neighbours again and find out if anyone else saw that man, then we’ll move on to the gay bars, ask around there and warn the people. If anyone finds out anything they call me.”

The policemen and -women nodded. Benny handed every team a copy of the sketch and told them to meet again at half past five before they headed out.

“How’re you holdin’ up?” he asked Dean when they were on their way to their first destination.

Dean glanced at his partner for a moment before he focused back on the road. “I’m good. Why’re you asking?”

“’cause I know you and this case is getting to you.”

“Of course it’s getting to me, this bastard is torturing and killing people. Probably the worst killer this city ever saw.”

Benny was quiet the rest of the drive and the two detectives dwelled on thoughts. Both knew that the killer could be with his next victim already and that they had to find out as much about the man as possible. Every second counted.

***

At 2.07 p.m. Benny got the call everyone had been hoping for.

“We got him!” Charlie yelled triumphantly into Benny’s ear and the detective nearly jumped out of his skin.

“We checked all cameras near every one of the locations where the men probably were abducted and we spotted him around the corner of Corbett’s home,” she went on as Benny put her on speaker. “Well, at least we think it’s him. He obviously knew where the cameras were and had his back turned to them all the time. BUT he didn’t notice a camera across the street from the third victim’s home and we have a great shot.”

Dean stared at his partner’s face, noticing the same agitation that he felt. “You have a name to go with that guy, Charlie?”

“Working on that now. I just sent you the image from that camera. And we’re trying to find a better shot of the car he’s probably driving to get his license plate. Looks like he’s driving a red Chevy, not sure about the exact make of the car and the year though.”

“Great. Call us when you find anything else and send the picture to the others as well.” 

“Already done that. See you later.”

Benny hung up and opened the picture Charlie had sent, holding his phone so that Dean could see it too.

“Let’s hope this really is our lucky day,” Dean said grimly as he stared at the suspect’s face. “I want this son of a bitch behind bars.”

“You’re definitely not the only one. But hey, our chances to catch him are a lot higher now that we actually know what he looks like so let’s do this.” Benny opened the passenger door of the Impala, got out and headed for the door of the next gay bar to ask around again.

No one there as well as at the other bars seemed to recognise the man but when Benny and Dean headed back to the precinct shortly past five more good news were waiting for them.

On their way to their office the detectives met Charlie who immediately grabbed Benny’s sleeve and dragged him to the IT room without any explanation. Dean looked after them with irritation for a moment, shrugged and walked on.

The composite sketch on the whiteboard had been replaced by the blurry picture from the surveillance camera and Dean stared at it for a while, memorising every feature of their suspect’s face. He turned around when he heard someone enter the room.

“Finally a face to go with these killings,” Jody said, arms crossed over her chest.

“Did you guys find out anything new?” Garth who stood next to her asked Dean.

“No, nobody has seen this guy or knows him. What about you?”

“One of Bass’s neighbours said he might have seen the suspect a few days prior to his disappearance but he wasn’t completely sure. Other than that we don’t have anything either.” Gath shrugged. ”Guess we should go to the conference room, let’s see if anyone found anything else.”

The meeting started a few minutes later after everyone had gathered in the functionally furnished room. Benny stepped in front of his colleagues and summed up the results of today’s investigations which were – apart from Charlie and Jo’s discovery – pretty unsatisfactory.

“However, Charlie will now tell you everything she and Harvelle found out,” he finished and sat down on the table.

The IT tech grabbed a few papers, stood up and went to the whiteboard the policemen were facing. She started talking while she was pinning pictures to the board.

“As all of you know by now Jo and I found a suspect that matches the witness’s description. He was caught by a surveillance camera across the street on the third site of abduction and possibly near the second victim’s flat as well, even though we don’t have a good shot at him there.”

She pinned a freeze frame of the back of an unrecognisable man getting into a red car to the whiteboard. “The good thing is that we’re pretty sure that this is his car. We can’t say for sure that this person is him but the same car was recorded by a traffic camera near the corner where Bass presumably was abducted. Ash is still looking for a shot where the license plate is visible.”

“Not exactly an inconspicuous car…” Jody mumbled.

Charlie took another sheet of paper and held it up for everyone to see. It was a mugshot of the guy they were looking for. “And here is our suspect: Gordon Walker, convicted two times, once because of illegal possession of firearms and the other time because of assault. Did three years in prison for the latter. He lives in the outskirts of the city and drives a red El Camino, the license plate is TRI 208.”

The redhead pinned the last photograph to the board before she went back to her seat.

Now Bobby got up and addressed his subordinates. “I want Garth and Benny to bring him in for interrogation. Charlie, Jo, you look for anything that might relate him to our victims. Dean, Sheriff Mills, see if you can find out if he has a hide-out somewhere where no one can hear him torturing those men. In the meantime I’ll get a search warrant for his home, everyone but Garth and Benny will participate in the search. Someone go tell forensics that we’ll need them.”

Everyone nodded and went to accomplish their tasks. Dean suggested talking to forensics first to ask them if they knew by now what kind of paint they had found on the victims’ clothes.

Meg greeted them with a smirk. The forensic scientist fetched three samples from a drawer and put one of them under the microscope. 

“Here, take a look at this.” She pointed at her computer screen that showed the particles under the microscope. “That’s the paint that was found on your second victim. And this,” she changed the object slide, “is the one from your third victim’s clothes. They’re exactly the same.”

Dean and Jody stepped a little closer when Meg changed the slides again and put the third one under the microscope. “Now this one looks relatively similar, see? We weren’t able to identify the paint for a while and this sample is the only one that matches the other ones more or less. It’s wall paint used for painting interior walls and possibly even ceilings in the 19th century. More precisely especially in Victorian architecture.”

“So we’re looking for a Victorian building like a villa or a mansion?” Jody asked.

Meg nodded. “Probably. But judging by the dust and dirt that’s mixed with the paint on your victims’ clothes I’d say it’s at least in need of repair if not completely rundown. I’ll send you the whole report when I’m done.”

“Thanks, Meg.” Dean smiled at her and left with Jody following behind. On their way to the stairs Bobby ran into them, visibly agitated.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dean asked his superior.

“Walker isn’t home, probably hasn’t been for at least a few days according to his neighbours. Benny and Garth are still questioning neighbours and friends but no one knows where he is. I just issued a search warrant for him and his car. Prepare for staying the night, we need to find his hide-out. I got a couple more detectives and officers to help.”

“Crap,” Dean muttered and hurried to his office with Jody to start searching for any place where Walker could be hiding and possibly torturing his victims. But at least they finally had more people working the case now. Dean and Jody concentrated on Victorian buildings but there were far too many in the area to search all of them, they needed something to rule some of them out.

An hour later Dean gave Cas a short call. “Hey, Cas, I probably won’t make it home tonight, we’re looking for a suspect and we need everyone here.”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know. Be careful, okay?” Castiel’s voice was full of worry. He understood that Dean couldn’t tell him anything about the case.

“Of course. You take care, too. See you tomorrow.” The detective hung up the second Benny and Garth entered the room.

“That son of a bitch seems to have dropped off the face of the earth, literally no one has seen him anywhere.” Benny gritted his teeth.

Garth piped up. “You think we should send his mugshot to the media and ask the public for help? Maybe someone has information about his whereabouts.”

Benny thought for a moment, then nodded. “Do it. We gotta do everything in our power to find him.”

Garth immediately started contacting the media while everyone else was looking feverishly for any clue as to where Walker might be. At ten past four in the morning Bobby ordered the team to go home and get some rest for a few hours, the night shift would undertake their tasks and continue searching.

Reluctantly everyone drove home. Bobby was right, it didn’t make any sense to work as overtired as they were, some of them were barely able to keep their eyes open. Dean reached his apartment building roughly fifteen minutes later, opened the door quietly and sneaked inside.

He took off his shoes and jacket, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and then immediately went into the bedroom. Knowing his way even in the pitch black of the room he crept into the bed. Only then he realised something was wrong.

He couldn’t hear his boyfriends steady breaths.

“Cas?” he whispered and felt for the familiar body next to him. The other half of the bed was empty.


	10. Missing

Dean fumbled hectically on the night stand to switch on his bedside light. As the lamp illuminated the room he had the terrible certainty: he was alone. His heart missing a beat he thought for a second. There hadn’t been any light in the living room, he was sure of that. The detective scrambled out of the bed anyway and hurried into the living room only to find it empty, just like the kitchen.

Dean searched for his phone in the pocket of his jeans that lay on the bathroom floor and dialled Cas’s number. His heart was pounding rapidly and fear started clawing its way inside.

“C’mon, pick up, god dammit…” he mumbled as he paced through the now brightly lit flat, passing the small wardrobe in the hallway and opening it to look inside. After ten rings the answering machine played Castiel’s voice back.

“Fuck!” Dean hissed but left a message anyway. After hanging up he immediately dialled Gabriel’s number that was pinned to the fridge along with a few other phone numbers.

“Myeah?” Gabriel’s sleepy voice answered.

“Gabriel? Do you know where Cas is?”

“What? Who’s there?” Gabriel growled. Dean heard the covers rustle through the phone.

“It’s Dean. I need to know if you know where your brother is!”

Gabriel must have noticed the panic in Dean’s voice because his answer sounded less aggressive. “No, I have no idea. Haven’t talked to him in… I don’t know, a week maybe? What’s going on?”

“I just got home and he’s not here. His trench coat is gone and I can’t reach his phone. If you hear anything from him call me, okay?”

“Hey hey hey, wait! You think it’s that psycho they talked about in the news last night?”

“I don’t know, Gabriel. I gotta go.” Dean ended the call. He didn’t know who else to ask, after all Cas spent most of his time working at home and rarely told anyone what he was doing. After a second pointless search of the flat Dean punched in another number.

“It better be important, boy…” Bobby’s gruff, tired voice grunted.

“It is. Cas is gone. I can’t find him anywhere.”

Now he had Bobby’s full attention. “What do ya mean, gone?”

“He isn’t in our flat, I can’t get him on the phone, his brother doesn’t know where he is and I don’t know who else to call. Bobby, it’s nothing like him to just disappear! He’d at least send me a text saying he was out but he is never gone that long. It’s quarter to five for fuck’s sake, he definitely isn’t at a bar or something! I warned him to be careful but what if…” Dean stopped and took a shaky breath. This couldn’t be happening.

“Alright, listen to me. We don’t know what happened but I’m gonna call Charlie to let her locate his phone, it might be switched on. Is there anyone else you can think of that might know anything? A friend he mentioned, some bar or something he visited regularly?”

Dean thought for a moment. “He doesn’t really know many people here except for the ones he works with. There was this woman he met last month, Anna or something, she’s an artist, too, and they met once or twice but they aren’t that close. He’s more of a loner.”

“You keep thinking, I’ll give Charlie a call and then I’ll get back to you. In the meantime I want you to check your flat for anything that might give us a clue, including signs of forced entry. You know best if there’s something out of the ordinary.”

“Bobby, what if it really was Walker? Cas fits the profile.”

“Then we’ll find him.” The grim determination in Bobby’s voice was unmistakable.

As soon as his superior had hung up Dean tried to calm himself enough to concentrate on examining the flat. He started with the living room that was in its usual chaotic state. For the first time since Dean had moved in with Cas he wished his boyfriend would at least occasionally tidy up and cursed him. He was still searching for anything helpful on Cas’s desk when Bobby called him back.

“Charlie traced the cell phone. It’s turned off, the last time it was switched on was at 9.13 last night roughly six blocks north of your flat. Any idea what he might’ve been doin’ there?”

“No, I don’t know why he… wait, where exactly was that?”

“On 18th Avenue. Did Cas have any reason to go there?”

“Crap, I think I know where he was. He brought a stray cat to the animal shelter there some time ago and told me that the staff there said he could come by anytime he wants. He must’ve been there last night.”

“See, that’s a first lead. Guess I know you well enough to know that there’s no point in telling you to get some sleep so go back to the precinct when you’re done with the flat. When was the last time you talked to him?”

“At shortly past seven p.m. yesterday I think. Called him to say I probably wouldn’t make it home for the night.”

“Then it’s too early to officially file a missing persons report. Anyway, meet me at the precinct and we’ll see what we can find out. Maybe he had an accident and went to the hospital, we don’t know for sure what happened. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

Dean ended the call and continued his search but it seemed pointless. There were no clues as to where Cas might have gone and no signs of forced entry neither on the apartment nor on the front door.

***

Nearly an hour later Dean was at the precinct, pacing restlessly through the empty office, cell phone pressed to his ear but again all he got was Castiel’s answering machine. Now he was waiting for Bobby. He needed to do something soon, couldn’t just sit around waiting for something to happen. Even though Dean had been up for nearly 24 hours nonstop with barely any breaks he didn’t feel tired, the fear for Cas was consuming him completely.

After what felt like an eternity Dean finally saw Bobby enter the room, a worried look on his face. His friend walked right up to Dean and pulled him into a hug. The detective gratefully hugged Bobby back for a moment.

“I can’t lose him, Bobby… We need to find him.”

“I know, boy. And we will.” Bobby let go of Dean, took a step back and patted the younger man’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s start by calling the hospitals and asking around if Cas is there. You want Benny or Garth to come in?”

“No, they should get as much sleep as possible. You’re right, it could be something harmless.” Who are you kidding, Winchester, a little voice whispered in his mind.

The detective sat down on his desk while Benny took a seat behind Benny’s workplace which was facing Dean’s.

“I want you to prepare a list of people we’ll have to question, of places he might have gone of his own accord and to mark the animal shelter, your home and the spot Charlie located on a map. I’ll make the calls,” Bobby instructed as he reached for the phone.

Dean did as he was told, trying to focus on the task and not think about what could be happening to Cas right this second while listening to Bobby’s voice with half an ear. He listed their neighbours and the staff at the shelter. When he came to the places all he could think of were the park near their home, a diner around the corner and the pub they went to occasionally when Dean had a night off. He printed a map of the quarter they lived in and marked all of those places in different colours.

It was nearly half past six when Bobby ended his last call and looked up at Dean, shaking his head. “No one fitting Cas’s description was hospitalised in the past twelve hours.” He got up and went to Dean’s desk. “How much do you have?”

Leaning back in his chair Dean showed him the list. “That’s all. The animal shelter opens at nine, I wanna question my neighbours before I go there.”

Bobby nodded. “I’ll help you. Let’s go get you some breakfast first, bet you haven’t had any food in hours. There’s nothing we can do now and you need something to eat sooner or later.”

“Bobby, I really just want to…”

“You know there’s no point in waking up people and questioning them now, that could only cause possible witnesses to get pissed and clam up. C’mon.”

Dean grumbled something unintelligible but got up and followed Bobby in the hallway because he knew his superior was right. Even though he didn’t feel hungry they spent twenty minutes having breakfast in a diner before leaving to talk to Dean’s neighbours.

When Benny called Bobby shortly past eight asking where he and Dean were Bobby summed the situation up and instructed Benny to set up a phone line for people with any information about the case and talk to the press again to let them ask the citizens for their help once more before continuing the search for Walker’s hide-out. Dean could hear Benny’s curses and his worried question about Dean’s condition.

I’m definitely better off than Cas no matter where he is, Dean thought grimly and knocked on the next door to question the couple living on the fourth floor while Bobby assured Benny Dean was doing more or less okay.

Dean desperately wished more policemen would help them and look into Castiel’s disappearance but his boyfriend hadn’t even been missing twelve hours and it couldn’t be treated as an official missing person case. Of course every available law enforcement officer was now busy searching for any clues regarding the serial murders. Even if the cases weren’t connected – and Dean doubted that – time was of the essence.

***

Cas slowly opened his eyes and blinked. He had fallen asleep for several short periods of time since the man had hauled him into the building last night, tied him to the rusty bedframe on which a thin mattress stained with indefinable flecks lay and taken off his blindfold. Judging by the light that faintly filtered through the boarded up windows it had to be early morning.

Concentrating on staying calm and focused Cas turned his head and looked around the dusky room. It was dirty and probably abandoned for years, a part of the ceiling had collapsed and debris lay everywhere. A hook hung from the still intact part of the ceiling a few feet away. 

The cold made Cas shiver and he roughly tugged on the bonds that held his wrists over his head for the hundredth time. His throat was sore from his pointless calls for help. 

He hadn’t seen the guy when he had grabbed and dragged him into a backstreet, tasered and blindfolded him and put him in the back of his car but when he’d taken off the blindfold Cas knew he was in big trouble. Or rather completely fucked. The light of the torch the man had carried had been enough to discern his features and Cas knew it was the guy Dean and his colleagues were searching for.

Cas thought feverishly about a way to escape. His feet weren’t bound but no matter how hard he tugged he couldn’t even loosen the rope around his wrists. He needed to free himself, to get out of here and as far away as possible. And he knew he didn’t have much time. Dean had said the victims had been held for five or six days before being killed and during those days the guy had tortured them.

He wrenched again and hissed when the rope cut into his flesh. The position of his arms didn’t allow him to sit up or roll on his stomach so he blindly tried to find the knot and loosen it. After a few minutes he was so engrossed in clawing his short nails in the knot that he didn’t even hear the approaching steps. 

“You already tryin’ to leave?” A gravelly, slightly amused voice caused Cas to freeze. He slowly lowered his head and gazed at the man in the plaid shirt that wandered leisurely into the room, a gun that pointed on the floor in his right hand. “Hey, I’m talkin’ to you.”

“I’m not exactly fond of being abducted, tied up and you wanting to torture and kill me,” Cas responded and gritted his teeth.

“Well, apparently you know who I am. Let’s see how long you’ll maintain that tough, cocky attitude.” A scornful grin spread over the man’s face. He stopped right beside Castiel’s head and looked down at him. “I’d say we rough you up a bit before we really get started. Don’t want you to be able to run, right?”

He leaned down and grabbed a thick metal rod that had rolled under the bed. “Let’s have some fun, faggot,” he said with a smirk and tightened his grip on the rod.


	11. Pieces of Time

The man working on the front desk of the animal shelter confirmed Dean’s assumption. Cas had showed up around eight the night before and left roughly an hour later which corresponded with Charlie’s statement that Cas’s phone had been turned off a couple of minutes past nine.

Bobby had called the IT tech again to tell her to check every camera within a one mile radius. Then he turned to Dean. “I’m sorry, boy, but I’m afraid there’s nothing else we can do for him for now. Let’s go back to the precinct and see what the others have so far. We need everyone available to work these murders.”

Dean followed his superior to his car and slumped into the driver’s seat. All he wanted to do was scream, rage, find this bastard and let him suffer for all he’d done to these men. What he probably was doing to Cas right now. But he pulled himself together and drove quietly back to the precinct.

Before he went into the office to face his partners and their concern and pity the detective went to the break room to get himself a coffee, then approached the office. He hesitated right outside the door, trying to steel for the next hours full of fear and despair. Benny and Garth looked at him with worry when Dean finally entered.

“Hey, buddy, how’re you holdin’ up?” Garth asked carefully.

Dean only grimaced and leaned against his desk. “Please tell me anyone has any news.”

Benny shook his head. “Nothing so far. Charlie and Jo are checking traffic and surveillance cams again, Sheriff Mills should be back soon, she helps Garth with looking for a place or way Walker used to find his victims but nothing so far, right?”

The other detective nodded and smiled sympathetically but Dean recognised the unease in his eyes. “We’ll find your boyfriend and we’ll bring him back to you, okay?”

“Garth, I know how this is working. I know what the chances of finding him in time are. And we all know time is the one thing we don’t have.”

“Listen, Dean, why don’t you go to forensics and ask again if they have anything that might help us to narrow down those Victorian houses? I’m honestly getting nowhere with that and could really use some help,” Benny suggested.

“Fine…” Dean mumbled. He knew his partner was only trying to keep him and especially his mind busy but he walked downstairs nonetheless and went looking for Meg. He found her in the evidence room a few minutes later, trying to get a cardboard box from the top shelf.

“Need a hand?” he asked and went over to her.

“Guess so. What’re you doing down here anyway?” Meg asked, raising a brow as she looked up at Dean who pulled the box down.

“Wanted to ask you if there’s anything else you could tell us that might help narrowing down the place where the victims held.” Dean followed the forensic scientist back to her lab, carrying the cardboard box.

“I’m afraid not. The analysis of their clothes wasn’t exactly fruitful and the paint and dirt were pretty much the only interesting thing we found. There’s nothing I can say about that building except for it having at least one baby blue room.”

“Alright, thanks…” Dean mumbled bleakly and headed to the hallway to get back to Benny.

Meg’s words held him back and he stopped in the door frame. “Hey, Winchester. Is it true that this guy abducted your boyfriend?”

“How do you know about that?” he asked and gaped at her.

“I suppose the whole precinct knows it by now. So it is true?”

“That’s just great… Why the hell can’t anyone here keep their mouths shut?” The detective clenched his hands into fists and buried them in the pockets of his leather jacket.

“Hey, I just wanna help. If there’s anything else I can do just tell me.” Meg shrugged and turned to the counter to open the box.

Dean left and immediately went back to the office. He nearly felt the time running out for Cas and it drove him insane. Knowing what Walker would do or already was doing to him if he really was the reason for Cas’s disappearance made him want to throw up. Every second that passed meant more terror and agony for Cas. Every second brought Dean closer to losing one of the most important people in his life. 

He got back to their second floor office at the same time as Jody who balanced coffee and a box full of donuts in her hands.

“Hey, kid, I’m so sorry to hear about your boyfriend,” she said empathetically as she put everything down on Garth’s desk. “You know everyone working this case is doing their best to find Walker, right?”

“And everyone in this goddamn precinct knows that Cas is gone. But at least they seem to believe that this maniac abducted Cas, too,” he grunted.

“Here, take this. You could use something for your nerves and to keep you awake.” The Sheriff handed Dean a cup of coffee and a donut.

Dean took both and smiled faintly at her before he sat down on his desk. “Thanks. Anyone call with new information?”

“No, sorry, man. Was Meg able to tell you anything else?”

Dean shook his head and took a sip of coffee as he gazed into space absentmindedly. His colleagues shared a worried look.

Benny grabbed a chair and sat down next to Dean. “So, anyway, there are hundreds of houses from that period of time around here. I already narrowed it down to unoccupied ones which still leaves a lot. Now we gotta figure out which ones are secluded enough for no one to hear anything or are located in areas that are more or less deserted.”

“Is there any way to find out in which condition they are? Y’know, when we have narrowed it down.” Dean looked at the three pages.

“I guess Google street view might be helpful so let’s get started. That’s a whole frickin’ lot of work.” Benny handed Dean one of the sheets of paper and went back to his own desk to begin with their task.

***

“Strip.”

“W-what?” Cas had a hard time standing upright and gripped the bed’s headboard to support himself. He was still breathing heavily and wincing with every breath he took.

The man – Gordon, he’d told him between blows – had cut him loose after what felt like hours of systematically dashing the rod down on him and commanded him to get up while he pointed his gun at Cas and reached for another rope. 

His eyes glinted with dark determination. “You heard me. I don’t really want to shoot you but I will do it if you don’t do what I tell you to. And believe me, a bullet in your leg hurts like hell.”

Cas glared at him for a moment, still trying to think out an escape plan but there was no way he could overpower Gordon, not in his condition. Hesitantly he took off his coat and started unbuttoning his shirt, all the while feeling the other man’s cold gaze on him as he undressed. When he’d carefully pulled off his shoes, socks and pants and wore nothing but boxers he clenched his teeth and looked up to meet Gordon’s eye defiantly. A cold shiver ran down his whole body.

His abductor stared back for a while and finally shrugged. “Whatever. Stretch out your arms in front of you. And if I were you I’d think twice about trying to do something stupid now.”

After a few seconds Cas obeyed quietly and Gordon tied his wrists together again, even more tightly than before. Cas winced at the pressure on his sore flesh when Gordon tugged roughly on the other end of the rope and forced Cas to follow him through the room until they stopped right underneath the hook hanging down from the low ceiling.

Gordon grabbed the hook, pulled it down on its chain and wrapped the rope around it to tie it to the metal hook. When he was sure the knot was solid and Cas couldn’t free himself he pulled on the chain. Cas winced when his arms were pulled over his head and instinctively took a step back. He had to force himself to hold back the groan caused by the horrible pain shooting through his entire body because of this new position and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He was fairly certain that several of his bones were cracked.

Having secured the chain and making sure again that Cas was bound just the way he wanted Gordon smirked at him scornfully. The rope was so short that his victim had to stand on tiptoes. “I think it’s time that we really get started… Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.” He left the room and Cas heard him striding through the building, presumably towards the exit.

You can’t give up just yet, he thought to himself. You need to get away from this lunatic. Yelling for help was pointless, Cas couldn’t hear any noises from outside, no one had heard his calls thus far and the man was probably not far away. He couldn’t rely on anyone to save him either, he had to save himself. And he knew his time was running out.

It had to be midmorning judging by the sunbeams falling in through the slits between the wooden boards covering the windows. Tiny dust particles danced in the light and lightened up for a few moments before disappearing in the shadows. Cas looked around, at least he was now able to see the whole room. He spotted an old fireplace on the wall to his right, a few feet behind the bed’s headboard, and longed for some kind of warmth that would chase away the cold of this March day.

He needed to concentrate. This room probably used to be the living room, the light blue paint and vine bordure were still partly visible on the walls. Cas recalled being dragged out of the car and up a few steps, through a room or hallway into another room – he had recognised the sounds of different floorings as Gordon hauled him through the house – and into this one. The front door wasn’t far and still beyond reach. But even if he managed to escape he had no idea in which part of the city he was and where to run – or rather hobble – to.

His thoughts were interrupted by Gordon’s footsteps that were approaching yet again. Staring at the door Cas waited for the man to enter the room, anxiously thinking about what he planned to do next.

When Gordon walked through the door Cas took a shaky breath. The small bag his abductor carried certainly didn’t contain anything pleasant. Gordon stopped a few feet away, turned his back to Cas, sat the bag on the floor and opened it. His back shielding the bag from Cas’s sight he rummaged a bit and Cas could hear something clink. Finally the other man pulled something out and crossed the room.

Cas swallowed dryly when Gordon stopped right in front of him and he saw what he held in his gloved hand. The thin mirror shard was rather small but looked really sharp. Cas was fairly certain he’d find out just how sharp it was very soon.

“I’ve been hunting down sinners, monsters and abhorrent things for years,” Gordon breathed, leaning closer. “This is just another job to me. You’re not the first and you most definitely won’t be the last one. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy it, does it? I wonder how much it will take for you to start screaming.”

He lifted his hand agonisingly slow, making sure that Cas got a good look at his torture instrument of choice. Cas tried to back away from him but the rope and his posture didn’t leave him much mobility and his maltreated body protested as he nearly lost his balance. Trying to kick the other man wasn’t even an option, even the tiniest movement hurt like hell.

Gordon wrapped his hand around Castiel’s neck right under his jaw to hold him still and pressed a tip of the shard against Cas’s collar bone. “You know, the shallow cuts are the ones that hurt most. They cause this burning pain that can last for hours. Just like this one.”

He didn’t even need to put much pressure on it, the mirror shard was razor sharp and cut into Cas’s skin with apparent ease. Cas gritted his teeth and took a deep breath as Gordon pulled the shard down to his chest. He could feel a few drops of blood appear on this skin and tried to steel himself for the next cut. Since Gordon held his head up Cas couldn’t see his other hand and winced as he felt the skin of his abdomen tear under the instrument.

At some point he lost count how many times the shard had cut into his flesh; he didn’t know how long Gordon had been busy carving his gruesome pattern into his skin. His jaw hurt from being clenched the whole time, his fists were desperately searching for something to hold on to and tears had come to his eyes but he hadn’t uttered a single sound, much to Gordon’s displeasure.

“You’re a tough guy, huh? Well, we’ll get there, don’t worry. I know a few things that will break you.” He sauntered back to his bag, took out a piece of cloth and put the bloody shard into it. Then he walked over to the bed and picked up the rod again. He weighed it in his hand as he approached Cas who was helplessly trying to keep standing and not go slack in his bonds.

“What do you think, how many blows will it take to make you scream?” Gordon lifted the rod and grinned devilishly.

Cas didn’t answer. He closed his eyes and waited for the first impact. At the very moment he opened them again because the other man had just stood in front of him for a full minute, not moving the slightest, Gordon struck his chest. “One.”

Cas hissed and growled as he felt his skin tear even more, squeezed his eyes shut and leaned forward in a miserable attempt to defend himself from the strokes. The next blow to his left side came unexpected and caused him to lose his balance and groan in pain as the rope cut into his wrists. “Two.”

The third blow hit him across the stomach and brushed his lowest rib. Cas couldn’t hold back the yelp when he felt the bone cracking. If it weren’t for the rope holding him upright he would’ve fallen to the ground and just stayed there. His whole body felt like it was on fire. 

“See? That’s way better.” Gordon smirked and lunged out again.


	12. Too Late

Cas must have blacked out at some point because when he slowly forced his eyes open again he was alone in the cold room. Being bound in this upright position made everything worse, he was sure he could feel every single bone and muscle in his body burn and ache terribly. The blood from all the cuts had dried to a crimson, itchy layer on his chest and thighs.

“I think I’ll turn to your back tomorrow,” Gordon had said earlier when he’d started cutting Castiel’s skin. “It’s gonna be lots of fun carving those wings off your shoulders. Bet it took a whole lot of time to get them tattooed. Don’t worry, we’ll take our time to get rid of them. People like you really shouldn’t have wings or holy symbols on their body. You’re a freak, a fucking monstrosity.”

Cas shuddered at the thought of those plans. The pain of getting the wings tattooed had been bearable and the tattoo on his ribs had been a bit worse but that surely was nothing compared to what was in store for him.

In addition to the immense physical pain he was in Cas wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without water. His mouth was dry, his head hurt like hell and he felt dizzy and weak, barely able to keep himself upright. Of course he knew that humans could go three or four days without water if they were in good shape but that definitely didn’t apply to him. He wasn’t even sure when the last time he’d had something to eat or drink had been, presumably nearly 24 hours ago. Or peed, for that matter.

Only being able to judge how much time had passed since he’d awoken this morning by the faint blueish light falling through the boarded up windows made him feel even more terrible and lost. It was nearly completely dark now and Cas could barely make out the outlines of the bed and fireplace. He was fairly certain it had to be evening and the temperature was still falling.

He tried to think about something else, something nice to forget about the pain and cold but as a matter of course it didn’t work. His thoughts wandered to Dean. His boyfriend had to know that Cas was missing by now, Dean certainly had been home and was worried sick and anticipating the worst – or actually what had really happened. Cas knew Dean would do everything in his power to find him but he started doubting that was enough.

He just wanted to sleep, wanted to curl up and rest his battered body or even pass out again; he was so tired and felt miserable. When he heard someone enter the house minutes – or possibly even hours, he really didn’t know – later he began to tremble.

“Look who’s conscious again.” Gordon smirked when he entered the room, holding a torch and a backpack in his hands. He opened the backpack, pulled out a mounting and stuck the torch into it.

Cas didn’t react and just stared at his abductor. Knowing that he would have to endure four or five more days of torture made death almost seem like a bright outlook. He tensed up when Gordon stepped right in front of him and clenched his teeth when he noticed the knife in his hand.

Instead to immediately start hurting Cas again Gordon surprisingly reached up and cut the rope. Instantly Castiel’s knees gave in and he fell forward, the impact of his fall knocking the breath out of his lungs. He didn’t even care about the cold, dirty floor pressing against his wounds, he just wanted to keep lying there and sleep forever but Gordon grabbed his arm tightly and hauled him up before shoving him towards the door. Every step Cas took was a torment but he didn’t dare making a sound let alone asking any questions as to where the man was taking him.

They crossed a small room and went into a dark hallway where Gordon opened a door. The window of the tiny bathroom was broken and barred but not boarded up like the ones in the living room so faint moonlight illuminated the room poorly.

“You got two minutes,” was all Gordon said when he pushed Cas inside and closed the door.

Cas was incredibly thankful for the chance to relieve himself even though it proved to be really complicated to do so with his wrists still bound together. When he was finally done and had managed to pull his boxers that were encrusted with blood back up he looked around. Of course there was nothing he could use as weapon. Gordon had probably used this room beforehand and made sure that his victims wouldn’t find anything to fight back with.

Just when he turned to look out of the window the door was being torn open and his abductor gripped his arm again. Without uttering a word he dragged Cas back to the living room and shoved him ruggedly on the bed where he had put the backpack.

“Open it,” Gordon commanded while he reached for the gun that lay on top of the small bag he’d carried with him in the morning.

Cas groaned at the rough treatment and hesitated for a moment before carefully unzipping the backpack to look inside. To his surprise he found a bottle of water and a small bag of crackers. He looked up mistrustfully.

Gordon rolled his eyes. “I don’t wanna poison you or anything, that’s not my style and actually kinda boring. Just want you to live a few more days and for what I’m planning I want you to be fully conscious. Now eat and drink that.”

Cas bit back a comment, managed to unscrew the bottle of water and drank down half of it down in one gulp. His throat still hurt and he took a few ragged breaths before carefully setting the bottle on the floor, picking up the bag of crackers and opening it. Gordon watched him as he ate.

When Cas was done the other man walked over to him and told him to get up and back to the other side of the room. Cas limped back to the hook dangling from the ceiling, the cold metal of the gun pressed into his back. It didn’t take Gordon long to tie the rope to the hook again and soon Cas was back in the painful position.

“I think it’s time to go on. Now, which one do we use this time…?” Gordon mumbled more to himself as he kneeled down next to his bag and took out a few mirror shards in different sizes. After he had picked a particularly thick one he turned back to Cas with a cruel smirk on his face. 

“You’re in for a long night,” he said and pressed the shard’s tip against Castiel’s cheek to slowly drag it down. Cas squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip to prevent a groan from escaping him.

“I can’t wait to get started on these wings,” Gordon growled into Cas’s ear and made another cut across his stomach, opening several other wounds in the process. “But till then I’ll be content with the rest of you. That tattoo will be the highlight.”

***

Dean had fallen asleep in the office around three in the morning, even a dozen cups of coffee couldn’t help against his exhaustion. He was still sitting on his desk when Benny got back to the precinct at eight, head resting on his arms and snoring softly. Benny decided to let his partner sleep a little more. No one had been able to convince Dean to go home to catch a few hours of sleep like everyone else, the fear and guilt were eating away at Dean.

Benny sat down on his own desk and continued with the list of empty houses. They’d narrowed it down to 43 the night before but that was still too much to search all of them. A few minutes later he looked up when Garth and Jody entered. They stopped when they saw Dean.

“He really stayed here the whole night, poor guy…” Garth mumbled compassionately.

Benny nodded at looked back to his list. “Yeah. We should let him sleep and keep going with the search.”

Garth and Jody agreed and sat down at Garth’s desk quietly, careful not to disturb the sleeping detective.

They had been bound up in their work for a while when the young officer taking the calls hurried into the office.

“Someone just phoned and said he saw the suspect getting out of his car a couple of minutes ago,” he exclaimed and handed Benny a note with the given address.

Benny immediately checked it, typed something into his computer and got up abruptly. “That’s right around the corner of one of the houses. Garth, you call the SWAT team, tell them to get ready and send them all the information we have about that place. I’m gonna let Charlie check every available camera in the area and tell Bobby about it.” Before he headed out the door he glanced at Dean. “Sheriff Mills, wake him and tell him about it, would you?”

Jody nodded and got a cup of coffee before she went to Dean’s sleeping figure and gently nudged him. Dean woke with a groan and blinked up at the Sheriff wearily.

“Morning. Here’s some coffee.” She smiled down at him and placed the cup in front of him.

Dean rubbed his eyes and stretched his sore muscles. “What time is it?”

“Quarter to nine. Listen, there’s been a call. Someone saw Walker.”

All at once the detective was wide awake and leapt to his feet. “What? Where?”

“Near one of those abandoned houses. SWAT is getting ready and your partner is talking to your superior right this second. Now you drink that coffee, we’ll be ready to go in no time.”

At Jody’s urgent tone Dean complied and basically chugged the hot liquid, then asked, “When did that call come in?”

“Few minutes ago. You have to be patient for a bit, okay?” Garth began to speak. “We’re gonna find Cas and we’ll get him out of there. The SWAT team’s team leader said they need half an hour. Why don’t you go help Charlie with checking the surveillance cameras near that house? There’s nothing else you can do now.”

“I need to go there. Now. Who knows what that bastard has already done to him.” Dean reached for his gun and put it into his holster. 

“Whoa, wait.” Garth grabbed Dean’s arm and held him back. “You can’t just go in there on your own, are you nuts? I know Cas is there but you’d risk both of your lives! Hang in there just a bit longer.”

Dean clenched his teeth but he knew that Garth was right. He was just about to storm off to help Charlie when Benny returned with Bobby and a couple other homicide detectives.

“Everybody listen up,” Bobby started to explain the plan while Benny showed them pictures of the house and its surroundings. “As always in such situations we need to wait for the SWAT team, they’re going in first. Now everyone gets themselves a Kevlar vest and we meet downstairs in five,” the Sergeant finished. Before Dean could leave Bobby stopped him.

“I need to know that you won’t do anything stupid. I know all you wanna do is get him out of there but I won’t let you risk anyone’s life so either you wait till SWAT gives us the all-clear or you stay here.”

Dean stared at his superior and nodded. “Got it. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Good. Everything’s gonna be alright, boy.” Bobby patted Dean’s arm and the two policemen went to get their bulletproof gear and join the others.

***

Adrenaline was rushing through Dean’s veins as he and his colleagues cowered behind the hedge that surrounded the old rundown residence and watched the members of the SWAT team slowly encircle it. The police cars and an ambulance where parked out of sight around the corner. 

Dean was simultaneously hoping and fearing to find Cas in the house and could barely pull himself together anymore. The seconds seemed to drag on forever until the team leader gave the signal for entering.

Dean could hear the “clear”s through the walkie-talkie and the leader’s confirmation that everything was under control eventually allowed them to enter. Dean rushed to the main entrance and into the house. His eyes were still adjusting to the darkness when he reached the room where most of the voices came from. He stopped in the doorway and was thunderstruck for a few seconds at the sight that presented itself to him.

Finally he recovered from the shock and stumbled through the room amongst the heavily armed SWAT team members who stood around a figure that hung dead still from a rope and stared at the man covered in blood.

“Cas…?” he uttered nearly inaudibly. He couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t. Before Dean could get any closer someone pulled him backwards so that one of his colleagues – he barely noticed which one – could cut the motionless body down and carefully lay him on the stretcher the paramedics had rolled in. Dean couldn’t take his eyes off the wounded, bloody figure that still didn’t show any sign of life. He needed to know if Cas was alive, if he was going to be okay, but strong hands held him back to let the paramedics to their job.

“Pulse is low but steady…” he heard one of them say. “We need to get him to the hospital, he probably was knocked out.”

The detective finally managed to break loose when the two men secured Cas and rolled him out of the room. “I’m going with him,” he told one of the paramedics and followed them outside to the ambulance.

Bobby came his way as Dean stepped out the front door. He knew what his younger friend wanted to do and nodded. “Keep me posted on his condition,” he ordered with a worried look on the stretcher as it was lifted into the ambulance.

***

The paramedics had told him they couldn’t say anything about Cas’s condition until they were in the hospital. Now Dean was anxiously sitting in one of the hard hospital chairs in front of the ER. He checked his watch every few minutes, hoping for a doctor to magically appear with every new look on the time.

More than three hours later a doctor eventually came through the slide door and headed for Dean. “Detective Winchester?”

Dean leaped up to his feet. “Yes?”

“The patient will pull through and is going to be alright. Physically, that is. He lost much blood, has cuts all over his torso and thighs, two cracked ribs and a concussion.”

“Can I see him?”

The doctor seemed slightly irritated. “It’s too early for an interrogation, he really needs to rest.”

“No, you don’t understand, he’s my boyfriend. Please, doc, I need to see him.” Dean looked at the man desperately.

Giving a sigh the doctor nodded hesitantly. “But no questioning. He’s in room 115.”

“I promise. Thank you.” Dean hurried past him down the hallway, quietly opened the door and sneaked into the small room.

Cas looked terribly fragile in the hospital bed with all the machines surrounding him, the tubes disappearing under the blanket and a plaster on his left cheek. The detective knew the rest of Castiel’s body looked even worse. When Dean sat down on the edge of the bed and carefully took his hand Cas slowly opened his eyes.

“Hey…” An insecure smile lit Dean’s face and he lightly caressed Cas’s hand.

“Dean…” Cas smiled back tiredly and Dean could see tears come to his boyfriends eyes. “You found me.”

Dean swallowed. “Dammit, Cas, I thought I’d never see you again…” All he wanted to do was hug Cas but that was impossible so he leaned down and gently brushed his lips over Castiel’s.

“Thought I’d never see you again, too,” Cas mumbled a few moments later.

“I’m so sorry I let that happen to you. I’m sorry we didn’t get there earlier, I’m sorry about what that son of a bitch did to you…”

“It’s not your fault and you know that,” Cas interrupted him quietly. “I’m so tired… Will you stay with me?”

“Of course I’ll stay. Get some sleep.” Dean leaned down for another brief kiss and whispered, “I’m right here if you need me. I love you, Cas.”

Cas smiled tiredly and closed his eyes. “I love you, too.”

It was only a matter of seconds till Cas was fast asleep. Dean stayed right where he was and held Castiel’s hand until suddenly his phone vibrated.

He quietly left the room and took the call. “The doctor says Cas is gonna be alright, Bobby.”

“I’m happy to hear that, boy. There’s only one problem. Walker is gone. His car is still down the road but we couldn’t find him anywhere. He just disappeared, no one saw him in that house and we have no idea where he is. He’s on the run and might try to kill Cas. We were too late.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always thank you Kelly, couldn't do it without you ♥
> 
> And again, I'd love to know what you think about this story so leave me comments :)


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